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CCi 



HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN 


BY 


THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST 


BY 

THOMAS A. DAVIES 


NEW YORK CITY 


«■» \ C> /% 


NOTICE. — This pamphlet can be obtained by addressing 
the Author by mail only, on receipt of Twenty -five cents for 
a single copy, or One Dollar for five copies, sent by mail. 
Any Newspaper, Magazine, or Periodical, can publish 
gratis the whole or any part of this pamphlet once. 



DECEMBER, 1895. 



SUBJECTS: 



ROAD TO SALVATION. 



PREFACE. 



APPEAL FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY. 



CHRIST'S CHURCH. 



CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS. 



COMPOSITION OF CHRISTIAN 
ORGANIZATIONS. 






GOD'S ORGANIC LAWS. ^>o62,t 



&<x\s 



CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT LAYMEN. 



APOSTOLIC ERA. 



Copyright, 1895, by Thomas A. Davies. 
\Right of Translation Reserved^ 

V 



■A 



FAITH ? BAPTISM 



O 



i/) 



He 

X 

o 







ROAD TO SALVATION 



PREFACE. 

The appeal of Pope Leo XIII. to the Anglican 
Church for unity of faith, brings up for consideration 
two very important points as precedents for its accom- 
plishment. The lirst is, that the Roman Catholic or- 
ganization claims to be the exclusive and only Christ's 
Church of the gospel, and the second is that the so- 
called apostolic succession carries with it the Divine 
powers which Christ gave to his twelve apostles. 

We iind nothing in the apostles' creed or in its 
elaboration, the Nicene Creed, that settles definitely 
these two points: In the apostles' creed we read, "I 
believe in the Holy Catholic Church (Christ's Church), 
and in the subsequently made Nicene Creed, "I 
believe in ■ One Catholic Apostolic Church" (Roman 
Catholic Church) Every one must draw his own 
conclusion as to the reason why the first name given 
to Christ's Church was subsequently changed to the 
One Catholic Apostolic Church, as neither of these 
two points are found in the gospel, nor in the creeds 
of the Christian denominations which accept them, 
nor are they essentials for salvation; it is important 
for all christians to find out by what authority they 
are accepted, and whether they are accepted as a 
faith, or as a discipline, or as deductions. 

The twelve apostles had the powers given to them 
by Christ of healing the sick, casting out devils, 
raising the dead, and forgiving sins, that they might 
possess the same powers that He used so successfully 
in His teachings. As the successionists of to-day are 
unable to perform these miracles, we naturally con- 
clude that they do not possess the power to perform 
them, and we are therefore compelled to look into 
the gospel to find out how Christ disposed of those 
apostolic powers. 

We find in Matt. xvi. 19, that Peter had an addi- 
tional power of loosing and binding in Heaven and 
on earth. As the power is not explicitly explained 
we must look for some act or acts of loosing or bind- 
ing done under it for an explanation; Ave fail to find a 



6 Preface. 

single act of Peter's power of loosing or binding in 
the entire gospel. This was a permissive power to be 
used at the will of Peter, and was not a mandatory 
law. The possession of a permissive power does not 
of necessity demand its execution, and as there is no 
record in the gospel that Peter exercised that powder, 
it therefore stands just where it was given without 
action so far as the record tells us. 

The powers given to the twelve apostles were given 
to them personally by Christ, and if any other person 
or persons were to possess those powers they must 
have been given by Christ or given to some one 
authorized by Him to confer those powers upon 
others. If such powers were ever conferred, as they 
were very important, it should be recorded in as 
plain language as that used to confer those powers 
upon the apostles, and should not be assumed by 
implication. No powers of the kind having been 
given by Christ except to the twelve apostles, or 
given to the apostles to confer them upon others can 
be found in the entire gospel. We therefore say that 
biblically no such powers were ever given to any one 
except the twelve apostles. Even though it be 
claimed that the Holy Ghost was to instruct them, 
these teachings would be in harmony with Christ's 
teachings, and if anything different was given, it in 
like manner should be recorded to make the gospel 
complete on the subject. 

Notwithstanding this we have never conversed with 
a catholic layman who did not believe that the apos- 
tolic succession carries with it the Divine powers 
given by Christ to the twelve apostles and that the 
Roman Catholic Church alone is Christ's Church. 
These claims as will be shown hereafter are infringe- 
ments upon the social, political and religious rights 
of all christians outside of that organization. As a 
necessity this has produced in the past violent dis- 
turbances, destruction of property and has cost 
thousands of lives, and if continued the same results 
are possible in the future, as history repeats itself. 

The claim that Christ's universal Church is con- 
fined to this particular organization, if true, would 






Preface. 7 

defeat the object of its establishment, and hence, is 
inconsistent with the spirit of His gospel. We think 
there has been a wide misconception of what Christ's 
Church is as founded by Him. We all admit that 
the gospel contains all the laws of God necessary to 
salvation. We say that Christ's Church is the 
embodiment of the gospel, a Divine law, and is 
neither a material entity or terrestrial organization. 
We claim that all religious organizations are for 
religious instruction to induce people to accept the 
faith in the truths of Christ's gospel, and be baptized 
into His Church, when they will come under God's 
promise and law securing to them happiness here- 
after if they continue to follow the other acquire- 
ments of the gospel, or punishment for sin. 

Our effort in this little work will be directed to show 
the bearing of these two claims upon the prospect of 
€hristian unity, and more directly upon the social, 
political and religious rights of the citizens of the 
United States especially, and of christians generally. 

THE APPEAL FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY. 

This appeal is resounding throughout the length 
and breadth of the land and it clearly indicates a 
deep seated unrest. There is undoubtedly a cause 
for this condition, and in diagnosing the case if we 
can discover the cause, we may be able also to dis- 
cover a remedy. The diversity of faith and belief in 
the various christian denominations is the real cause 
of the appeal for unity. It is therefore of the first 
importance that we should understand what belief 
and faith are and upon what foundation they really 
rest, and then to ascertain why such a variety of 
beliefs and faiths exist. 

The terms belief and faith are used in the Scrip- 
ture interchangeably and apparently have the same 
meaning in places, whatever may be the cause; belief 
is the reception of the information about Jesus Christ 
and His gospel as truth, and faith is the spiritual 
conviction of that truth as necessary to baptism into 
Christ's Church. Belief is entirely'terrestrial, while 



8 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

faith is entirely celestial when they are applied to Chris- 
tianity. Belief then is a conclusion we arrive at from 
information we derive from another or from others, 
while faith is a mental conviction deduced therefrom. 

The only means we have of framing a belief in 
Christ and His gospel is the record we have in print 
and oral teachings of those who are educated in that 
print. We read and hear the entire gospel, and as a 
whole we conclude our belief, that it was the product 
of Christ's mind. The imprint has gone through 
many changes, not only by misprints, but by numer- 
ous constructions of some passages, and by different 
and varying translations. 

In our belief, which should we follow, the mind of 
Christ, or any one of the various constructions, typo- 
graphical errors, or translations from the original ? 
We say most emphatically that our belief in the 
great truth of Christ's gospel is founded in the fact 
that Christ's mind conceived, framed and delivered 
it to the world. That misprints, misconstructions of 
particular words or passages or differences of trans- 
lations are mere nothings, when taken in connection 
with the great truth that Christ's mind was the 
author of His gospel and that this we should believe 
and follow it in our faith. 

The great question then is, have we the gospel as 
it came from the mind of Christ? If we have, or if 
all would acknowledge that we have, there would be 
no necessity for any further effort to obtain christian 
unity, it would follow as a resultant. If we have 
not the gospel as it came from the mind of Christ, 
where rests the fault, and on whom rests the responsi- 
bility? It must be either on those who recorded 
Christ's ideas or on those who have translated from 
the originals, or on those teachers who have con- 
strued those translations in the past, and at the pres- 
ent time. 

However faithfully the apostles may have per- 
formed their duties in writing down Christ's words 
from memory on an average of fifty years after they 
were spoken, it would not be strange if they did not 
get the record exact from the mind of Christ, still 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 9 

there is no doubt that they recorded, the main ideas 
necessary to salvation. No man can tell at this 
remote period whether a word has been dropped or a 
word added at vital points by accident, or that the 
same result or w r orse has occurred in the translations 
by design. Here may be one of the causes of the 
various contentions in the christian world. 

The bibles are considered by all christians as the 
standard of instruction on their obligation and 
duties. Is it then surprising that there are so many 
different sects, having different faiths, each of which 
take their authority from some one of the various 
bibles, no two of which issues agree. The first step 
then towards a christian unitj^, is to have a uniform 
bible, in every language, that shall agree with the 
originals in the Hebrew and Greek, and with existing 
laws of God, otherwise all efforts at a unity will be as 
futile as is the present condition of the christian faith. 

There is a large class of christians who have the 
same creed of belief and hence are of the same faith 
on the x>oints that that creed contains, because faith 
always follows and is deducible from belief. While 
these denominations have the same belief and faith, 
they have very differing disciplines, and it is from 
these that most of the christian confusion and con- 
tentious arise. To agree upon belief and faith on 
particular points of the gospel as cardinal, by no 
means binds to a belief and faith upon other points of 
the gospel as construed by some particular organiza- 
tion to support its particular discipline. These are not 
cardinal but discipline, the cardinal being the faith 
and the discipline the constitution of the organization. 

As the creed is the foundation of belief and faith 
of all true christians, it is useful to the proper under- 
standing of our effort to give it in full, and if our 
space allowed we would give the settled discipline or 
constitution of each of the christian denominations 
that have accepted and do accept that creed and 
deduced faith. Faith in a christian point of view is 
only effective and valuable as a preparatory step to 
baptism into Christ's Church, where there is but one 
Lord, one faith and one baptism. 



10 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
Heaven and Earth. 

And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin 
Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucilied 
dead and buried; He descended into hell, the third 
day he rose from the dead; He ascended in Heaven, 
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father 
Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the 
quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the com- 
munion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resur- 
rection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. 

This was the first creed adopted by the catholic 
organization and there must have been some import- 
ant and controlling reason for the great change and 
the adoption of the Mcene Creed; hence we give it 
so that any one can make a comparison between the 
two and determine the cause of the change. 

THE NICENE CREED. 

I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of Heaven and earth, and of all things visible and 
invisible. 

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten 
Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds; 
God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, 
Begotten not made, being of one substance with the 
Father ; by whom all things were made; who for us 
men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, 
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin 
Mary, and was Made Man, and was crucified also for 
us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried; 
and the third day he rose again according to the 
scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at 
the right hand of the Father, and he shall come again 
with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, 
whose kingdom shall have no end. 

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and 
Giver of life, who precedeth from the Father and the 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 11 

Son, who with the Father and the Son together 
is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the 
Prophets, and 1 believe one catholic and apostolic 
Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remis- 
sion of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the 
dead, and of the life of the world to come. Amen. 

It would seem to the ordinary reader that if the 
catholic organization had wished to have the Holy 
Catholic Church understood as Christ's Church, why 
did they not use the name that Christ gave it instead 
of using a substitute that required construction. We 
do not desire to attribute motives that cannot be 
reasonably drawn from recorded acts. Here we find 
them taking the first name, Holy Catholic Church, 
as construed Holy Universal Church, and then the 
changed name to One Catholic Apostolic Church, or 
one Universal Apostolic Church. Whose church, 
Christ's Church, or the Apostolic Church? Every 
one must be their own judge of the motives of the 
Roman Catholic organization, of which Peter was the 
head, of ignoring the name Christ's Church, and mak- 
ing the substitution therefor which has been named. 

We do not see much difference except in one 
respect between the apostles' creed and the Nicene 
creed, the latter being more verbose and explanatory 
than the former. But there is one very great and 
vastly important difference in the one respect re- 
ferred to. In the apostolic creed it reads "I believe 
in the Holy Catholic Church." What does this 
mean % All christians define it as Christ's Church 
because holy means established by Christ, and 
Catholic means universal, hence that the Holy 
Catholic Church means Christ's Universal Church. 
In the Nicene Creed it reads "I believe in one 
catholic apostolic church." 

The result of making a new creed was to change 
the faith of the then christian world from Christ's 
Universal Church to the "one catholic apostolic 
church," because according to the theology of the 
apostolic succession the Pope had the power to fl.o so. 
The effect of this change in creed was to narrow down 
Christ's universal church to the one catholic 



12 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

apostolic church. It aimed to shut out all christian 
effort except it was made in the one catholic apostolic 
church, which was then and is now the Roman 
Catholic organization, the name having been changed 
while the creed substantially remains the same. 

Let us now see what Christ's Church means, and 
what One Catholic Apostolic Church means. Two 
different things may have so nearly the same name 
that the one may be taken for the other. The word 
church was used by Christ in Matt. xvi. 18, for the 
first time in the scripture, and the declaration to 
build His Church was caused by Peter's announce- 
ment of faith that "Christ was the Son of the ever 
living God," as this faith was to be the rock and 
foundation stone of His Church. This faith for the 
christian is derived from a belief of the apostolic 
creed. The word church is applied to various ter- 
restrial organizations,, to various buildings and to 
various sects, but the meaning in these various uses 
depends upon the identity of the thing it stands for. 

Hence we say that Christ's Church is the embodi- 
ment of His gospel and is a Divine law requiring a 
course of conduct specified in Christ's gospel, and is 
not a terrestrial entity or thing, while the word 
church used to denote entities or things differs widely 
in meaning from the word church used by Christ. To 
call His Church by its own name and give it its true 
position, would be to elevate it above the wrangling 
factions of earth, which carry its name only as a mis- 
nomer which is misleading. Let every theology stand 
on its own bottom and not dress itself in the assumed 
livery of Heaven for acceptance before God or man. 

To recognize Christ's Church as the goal of the 
christian is the first step to obtain the means of get- 
ting there, which means Christ has laid down as 
simple and explicit. The after conduct is more com- 
plex and difficult and is pointed out by Christ in few 
but far reaching words, "Love God with all your 
heart, and with all your mind, and with all your 
soul, and your neighbor as yourself, on these two 
commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 13 

If all the christian denominations of the world 
would accept the uniform faith deduced from the 
apostles' creed, that "Jesus Christ was the only Son of 
the living God and that His gospel was truth and 
that He was to judge the living and the dead," it 
seems to us that we would have substantially a 
christian unity on this basis. As it is now each 
denomination claims that they are right and that all 
the others are wrong. 

To prove it each one dethrones Jesus Christ as judge, 
assumes His office, pitches into the others with argu- 
ments and documents, and dissensions, bickerings, 
quarrels and contentions till the land as the result. 

The appeal for christian unity is based upon the 
supposition of a diversity of faith. If this claimed 
diversity be well founded, to what is the faith to 
apply? Is it to Christ's Church, or to the terrestrial 
christian organizations? It certainly cannot apply 
to Christ's Church/for in His Church there is but 
" one Lord, one faith and one baptism." It must 
therefore be directed to the temporal organizations. 
Does the terrestrial organization as such have a faith ? 
If any denomination does not teach the apostles' 
creed, the faith resulting and Christ's gospel, it is not 
a christian denomination, and the appeal does not 
apply to it. If then there are any which teach the 
apostles' creed, the faith resulting and the gospel, 
they cannot be called in Christ's Church, because 
the denomination as such cannot have faith and be 
baptized to enter Christ's Church, while any indi- 
vidual in that organization can accept the true faith 
and be baptized into His Church. 

It therefore is apparent that the appeal for Chris- 
tian unity must apply solely to individuals, and the 
logical sequence is that it is an appeal for more mem- 
bers of Christ's Church and more effort to obtain 
them. No terrestrial christian organization can be 
truthfully Christ's Church, or to be in Christ's 
Church. The various organizations which assemble 
in Christ's name for teaching, being taught, or for 
worship, are recognized and approved of by Christ 
Himself, when He said " Where two or three are 



14 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

gathered together in my name there will I be in their 
midst." This it seems to us settles the question as 
to any particular organization or congregation or 
assembly being Christ's Church. 

In order to unravel the confusion that has arisen 
by using the name church for all such organizations 
we must ascertain from Christ's words what His 
Church is, and what the apostles' first organization 
for teaching His gospel was. 

Matt. xvi. 13. When Jesus came into the coast of 
Cesarea Phillipi, he asked His disciples, saying 
"Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am ?" 

14. And they said, some say that thou art John 
the Baptist: some Elias: and others Jeremias or one 
of the prophets. 

15. He said unto them " But whom say ye that I 
am?" 

16. And Simon-Peter answered and said, Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 

17. And Jesus answered and said unto him: 
" Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which 
is in heaven." 

18. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock I will build my Church: and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

19. And I will give unto thee the keys- of the 
kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
on earth shall be bound in heaven, nnd whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 

20. Then charged He His disciples that they should 
tell no man that He was Jesus, the Christ. 

21. From that time forth began Jesus to show 
unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jeru- 
salem and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised 
again the third day. 

22. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke 
Him, saying, be it far from thee Lord: this shall not 
be unto thee. 

23. But He turned and said unto Peter, get thee 
behind me Satan, thou art an offence unto me, for 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 15 

thou savorest not of the things that be of God but 
those that be of men. 

In the conversation of Christ with Peter, after ask- 
ing him who he was, Peter answered "Thou art 
Christ, the Son of the Living God." Christ returned 
the salutation "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I 
will build my church and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." The faith of Peter that Christ 
was the Son of the Living God was the rock on which 
He was to build His Church. This declaration 
settles the whole question as to who built Christ's 
Church, or whether it was built by others and called 
by that name we have Christ's word to deny it, for 
Christ said He Himself would build His Church, and 
this was done before any authority or power was 
given to His apostles. 

This is clear and explicit that Christ founded and 
built His own Church without aid from any one, and 
it was a completed Church with "One Lord, one 
faith, and one baptism," an everlasting, universal, 
unchanging home, with "many mansions" for all 
who would accept the faith and be baptized. A 
church having the gospel for its constitution and 
laws to guide its members in conduct. Can any 
language express more clearly what Christ's Church 
is and who built it \ It is a spiritual home here and 
hereafter for the christian. 

Christ therefore gave no direction to His apostles 
to build His Church or about building it, or about 
building churches of any name or kind, but the trend 
of all His directions to them was to teach His gospel 
to the world after He founded and built His Church 
and proclaimed by His own teaching, his gospel; 
He adopted the plan of apostolic teaching after His 
crucifixion and resurrection. In order that those 
teachings should be as effective as His own, He con- 
ferred upon His apostles the same outward powers 
that He had found effective in convincing the people 
that He was the Son of the Living God. He therefore 
gave them powers to heal the sick, cast out devils, 
raise the dead and to forgive sins. 

Language is used to convey ideas and is limited in 



1Q Appeal for Christian Unity. 

its application and construction to the ideas to be 
conveyed. Wliat then were the ideas to be conveyed 
when Christ gave those powers to His twelve apostles % 
Was it to give those powers to all the men of Judea % 
No ! Was it to give those powers to any other persons 
than His twelve apostles if No! CouJd they by reason 
alone of having those powers from Christ give those 
powers to the inhabitants of Judea or to any one of 
the pagan world, or even to any one of Christ's friends? 
No ! They were therefore to use those powers them- 
selves and for themselves, nor did they do otherwise, 
nor attempt to do so, as far as the record informs us. 

The same directions which Christ gave to His 
apostles He gave His disciples before His crucifixion. 

Matt, xxviii. 18. And Jesus came and spake 
unto them, saying "All power is given unto me in 
heaven and upon earth. 

19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptiz- 
ing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. 

20. Teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you 
always even unto the end of the world." Amen. 

It is evident from these explicit directions to 
Christ's disciples and apostles that teaching His 
gospel was the substance of all His commands to 
them, so in order that their conduct and teachings 
should agree, they were confined in the execution of 
their ministry to the gospel alone. If, therefore, we 
find in claiming or doing what cannot be found in the 
gospel we must set it down as discipline which is 
action of the human mind without direct authority 
of Jesus Christ; while discipline may be advanta- 
geous or even pleasant, it must be held as distinct 
from divine commands, and should not interfere with 
the social, political or religious rights of others. 

We therefore say most distinc ly that the gospel 
does not contain the magna chart? that the apostles 
had given to them in direct language the power to 
confer upon others, the powers conferred upon them 
by Jesus Christ. That those powers ceased in the 
death of the apostles, and this is one of the most 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 17 

brilliant facts to show his wisdom. The powers 
given to the apostles was for a specific object, to 
make people more readily believe that Jesus Christ 
was the !Son of the Living Grod, and when that was 
accomplished, the gospel remained for the universal 
use and enlightenment of the world. 

If Divine authority ever conferred power upon a 
human being, there is no earthJy power that could 
revoke that power except death, which is a Divine 
act. Christ knowing human nature, knew its weak- 
ness and the case of Peter, His favorite apostle, was 
one in point and like cases were possible and probable 
to occur. If he had confined the teaching of His 
Gospel to one particul&r ^ ne °f nien forever, 
humanity would assert itself and error creep into the 
teachings, as it did in various cases of heresy, and if 
those heretics had asserted their Divine authority, no 
earthly power could have dethroned them. 

As we read the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds, under 
the Apostolic Creed the Divine apostolic succession 
was a discipline, while under the JNicene Creed it was 
made by the approval of the Pope, as part of their 
belief and hence a faith. Under the apostles' creed 
it is "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," or in 
other words, I believe in Christ's universal church. 
In the Nicene Creed the same sentence reads "I 
believe in One Catholic Apostolic Church," that is, 
they believe in the Roman Catholic organization, 
made by the apostles, which they call Church after 
the name of Christ's Church. As the apostles founded 
the Roman Catholic organization, and if that organi- 
zation is Christ's Church, then the apostles founded 
Christ's Church, so that Christ had nothing to do 
with founding His Church. 

The vital question then can easily be answered. 
Did Christ found and build his Church, or did Hie 
apostles? We are compelled to take Christ's Avoids 
in the matter as binding, and while the apostles did 
a great and good work worthy of their appointment, 
they cannot claim the high honor of founding and 
building Christ's Church. We have said that Under 
the apostles' creed, the claimed Divine apostolic sue- 



18 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

cession was a discipline. The succession consists of 
selection and then of ordaining by the laying on of 
hands, as a discipline which, in our judgment, is a 
good one, as it throws responsibility upon the ordainer 
for the selection of the fittest. 

Divine authority must always be derived from 
examples of Christ or from declarations found in His 
gospel. As there are no declarations in His gospel 
that ordination by laying on of hands shall convey 
Divine authority, or that ordinations shall be done 
by the laying on of hands, or any particular form 
shall be used in ordination, it follows that the form 
of ordination adopted by the apostles by the laying 
on of hands was a discipline. If Christ had ordained 
anyone in order to set an example to be followed, it 
should be found in His gospel; but no such ordination 
can be found there, much less the ordination by the 
laying on of hands. Christ selected His apostles 
simply, without any exterior form. 

It is claimed by the catholic clergy that the 
apostles' creed, the Nicene creed, and the creed of 
Pope Pius IV. are the same, and we admit that they 
are, except as to the name of the organization to 
which they are applied. Then why did it become 
necessary to change the name in the apostles' creed 
to the name in the Nicene creed, and then again 
change it to the name in the creed of Pope Pius IV. 
The reason is well known that the first change was 
made because the Holy Catholic Church being 
Christ's universal Church covered more ground than 
the Nicene name, u One Catholic Apostolic Church," 
while this name left out the word holy, which when 
restored made the name, One, Holy, Catholic Apos- 
tolic Church. This made Christ's universal Church 
by name The Apostolic Roman Catholic Organization. 

As to the faith of the Roman Catholic organization, 
founded on the Apostles' Creed, we have nothing to 
say except in commendation, but to the name of the 
organization to which that faith is to be applied, we 
have something to say, for that is a social, political 
and religious question affecting the rights of indi- 
viduals, which under certain circumstances can and 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 19 

may become a serious one, menacing the peace and 
good order of society. Not satisfied with using the 
name of Christ's Universal Church, the church that 
Christ founded and built, they changed it to One 
Catholic Apostolic Church, the terrestrial organiza- 
tion founded and built by Peter, Christ's apostle, 
which made Peter the head of Christ's Church, in- 
stead of Christ Himself, and confirms the apostolic 
succession from a discipline into a faith. 

Not satisfied still with the name One Catholic 
Apostolic Church, they changed it again to One, 
Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church, by the creed of 
Pope Pius the IV. about the year 1563 A. 1)., and 
still another addition was made to this creed by Pope 
Pius the IX., referring to the supremacy and infalli- 
bility of the Pope. The new creed of Pope Pius the 
IV. was made to meet what was denominated the 
errors of Calvin, Luther and other protestants. They 
were called heretics, and the object was to shut them 
out from the benefits of Christ's Church without they 
entered it through the Roman Catholic organization 
of which Peter had been the head. 

All these changes in the creed did not affect the 
faith derived from the apostles' creed, except by 
applying the name of a terrestrial organization to 
Christ's Church, a spiritual kingdom, which gave 
strength and Divine Power to the priests, bishops, 
archbishops, to the cardinals and to the Pope. 
While the laity had nothing to do with the subject, 
they remained quiet and satisfied, and were even 
pleased with the idea that their teachers were vice- 
gerents of Jesus Christ and thus stood in the steps 
of Christ Himself by the assumed apostolic succes- 
sion. This is the equivalent to a little red blanket 
held out to the world and which has provoked oppo- 
sition, discussion and retaliation, crystallizing and 
strengthening this organization till it has become one 
solid unit opposed to every other christian organiza- 
tion. This great fire has come from a little spark, 
and for which the Roman Catholics of to-day are not 
responsible. That little spark was the assumption of 
Christ's eleven apostles, that they could continue 



20 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

their succession in Divine appointment and powers 
by the laying on of hands on whom they might 
select, and we say distinctly that no such authority 
in plain language can be found in Christ's gospel. 

The result is that from its beginning until now, it 
has taught the true faith derived from the apostles' 
creed, and baptized into Christ's Church millions of 
human souls, but it has cost by martyrdom and other 
deaths thousands and thousands of valuable lives. 
What if the same discipline be continued, it may cost 
in the future, no man can tell or divine. This has arisen 
from the two claims set up by the Roman Catholic 
organization. The first is that it is the exact Church 
which Christ founded and built and called His 
Church, of which He was the Lord and Head, and the 
second is that by reason of Christ having given to 
His apostles certain divine powers to make their 
teachings correspond and be as effectual as His teach- 
ings of His gospel after the extinguishment of those 
powers by death, should be performed by men having 
the same divine powers and positions forever. 

There is no necessity of making arguments about 
admitted facts, but consider the facts themselves and 
what they are. Did Christ found and build His 
Church or not % It is an admitted fact that He did, 
and therefore the existence of His Church is an ad- 
mitted fact. Did the apostle Peter found and build 
the Roman Catholic organization? Either he did or 
did not. It is admitted that he did, and that it 
exists. Then here are two admitted facts; are they 
one fact as claimed by the catholics ? To determine 
this we must investigate the construction of each, the 
object and use of each, and if they differ, the facts 
differ. Christ's Church is His spiritual kingdom, 
and extends all over the earth and includes heaven 
and is therefore universal. It is a fixed, finished and 
unchangeable condition and not an entity. 

Then what is the Roman Catholic organization? 
The apostle Peter was appointed by Christ, the head 
of that organization, to do what Christ did in His 
teachings, and he fulfilled his mission in teaching 
Christ's gospel. What was the declared object of 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 21 

those teachings \ It was to inform the people of 
the truths of the gospel that they might prepare 
themselves by embracing the faith and be baptized 
into Christ's Church. It follows that Peter's organi- 
zation was an institution for instruction in Christ's 
gospel, and they were precedents for faith and 
baptism. !3o that the organization was not to reach 
up to Christ's Church but was to furnish the material 
for it. While the appointed apostles followed 
Christ's directions in teaching, they seemed not to 
have understood the difference in the object of their 
teachings and the result of their teachings. 

All christian organizations have the same object, 
and if they teach the gospel and the true faith and 
baptism, they produce the same result if they pro- 
duce any. It then is apparent that the two facts 
referred to are independent of each other as facts, 
hence Christ's Church and the Roman Catholic organi- 
zation are two separate and distinct facts and exist- 
ences. Christ's Church is a spiritual universal king- 
dom, while the Roman Catholic organization is a ter- 
restrial corporation, incorporated by the laws of every 
country where it exists to enable it to hold property 
and carry on its teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Let us examine the bearing which the claimed 
apostolic succession had upon the reformation. No 
one will deny the succession as it is called in the 
ordinary acceptation of the word; but this is not all 
that catholics claim; they claim that the succession 
was by aposties, having the same divine powers as 
the twelve, and not by the disciples of Jesus Christ. 
We would be willing and not only willing, but it 
would be a christian duty to acknowledge, that the 
entire succession from the day of Pentecost of priests, 
bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes were each 
and all vicegerents of Jesus Christ and possessed 
all His delegated powers to the apostles if such claim 
could be found in His gospel, not by implication, or 
by construction, but by language as plain as that used 
by Him in making His apostles His vicegerents. 

The apostolic succession by name or its equivalent 
is not found in the gospel, and hence is not a primary 



22 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

truth of Christianity. It is an assumed name not 
found in scripture. It is a good name if it only 
represented the succession in priestly offices of 
members of Christ's Church, without the claim of 
being His vicegerents. Names do not prove identi- 
ties and the name of apostle does not make an 
apostle, no more than calling the Roman organization 
Christ's Church. In this connection we would say, 
that if by any strange construction the apostolic suc- 
cession with its full catholic meaning be admitted, an 
indisputable fact arises, that no provision can be 
found in the gospel giving to anyone the power to 
revoke the Divine power given to an apostle, or de- 
grade him from the performance of his calling, so 
that once an apostle always an apostle, until the 
Divine act of death closes his career. 

It therefore follows that all the so-called apostles 
that seceded from the catholic organization were 
still apostles with all their Divine powers as reform- 
ers. Hence Luther and Calvin and others of the 
reformation were apostles of Jesus Christ with full 
power, and if they taught the true faith and doctrines 
of the gospel, they held the same Divine position as 
though they belonged to the organization under the 
name of Roman Catholic. If they taught anything 
different from the gospel, they were responsible to 
God for the sin and punishment would await them 
for that sin. They were responsible by the rules and 
discipline of the Roman Catholic organization and 
could be ejected from that organization, and denied 
the right to preach in that organization. 

As an individual opinion, which does not amount 
to much, we think it a great pity that an organiza- 
tion that has done so much good in the past, by 
bringing through its teachings millions of human 
souls into Christ's Church, and has the prospect of 
doing the same in the future, should be handicapped 
by a discipline which is repulsive to over half the 
christian world. There was a time when it might 
have done good, but that day has passed, and in this 
enlightened age it certainly does more harm than 
good, for Christianity is a democratic institution, and 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 23 

not an aristocratic one, is a universal one and is not 
confined to one particular set of men. 

Before the Reformation the Catholics occupied 
much of the christian ground, and in less than three 
hundred and fifty years they hold less than one half. 
From the statistics taken in the United States, the 
following is the result : 

Washington, June 28, 1895. The census report 
covering the statistics of churches has just been 
issued. There are 142 distinct denominations in the 
United States, besides independent churches and mis- 
cellaneous congregations. The totai number of com- 
municants of all denominations is 20,612,806, who 
belong to 165,177 organizations of congregations. 
These organizations have 142,521 edifices, which have 
sittings for 43,564,863 persons. The value of all 
church property, used exclusively for purposes of 
worship is $697,630,139. There are 11,036 regular 
ministers, not including lay preachers. There are 
bodies, which have more than 1,000,000 communi- 
cants, and ten mere than 500,000. The leading de- 
nominations have communicants in round numbers 
as follows: Roman Catholics 6,250,000, Methodist 
1,000,000, Baptist 3,725,0()0, Presbyterians 1,280,332, 
Lutherans 1,230,000, Protestant Episcopal 500,000. 
In number of communicants and value of church pro- 
perty New York leads and Pennsylvania follows, but 
in number of organizations Pennsylvania is first and 
Ohio second. The increase in the value of church 
property since 1870 has been $325,146,588, or nearly 
92 per cent., while the number of churches has in- 
creased 42 per cent. The increase in the number of 
organizations is 126 per cent. 

From this it will be seen that the Roman Catholics 
have 6,250,000, while five of the leading protestant 
organizations have 11,375,332. 

Let us now examine what the fruit of the claim of 
the apostolic succession had upon the reformation. 
We take the status of things at the time King Henry 
VIII. of England applied to the Pope of Rome for a 
dispensation to put away his wife and marry another. 
King Henry was a member of Christ's Church in 



24. Appeal for Christian Unity. 

good standing, and bad become so through the 
Catholic organization of which the Pope was the 
head. The putting away of one wife and marrying 
another was a violation of the VII. commandment, 
" Thou shait not commit adultery." Christ specifically 
defined this act as adultery, hence the Pope was com- 
pelled to refuse his consent. 

When we speak of the Pope being the head of the 
Catholic organization, Ave do not mean the head by 
apostolic succession, but head of the terrestrial organi- 
zation, and we think for success every christian 
organization should have a head selected from among 
the members of Christ's Church, by selection of the 
fittest. This Pope was the head of the Catholic 
organization by selection of the fittest from among 
the members of Christ's Church, and we presume was 
in the succession line from Christ's apostles by the 
laying on of hands. 

If the powers given to the apostle Peter by Christ, 
Matt. xvi. 19, t4 l will give unto th^e the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shaft bind 
upon earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven," be construed literally, and the Pope had 
the same powerby apostolic succession, then the Pope 
had the power to loose the bond of marriage between 
King Henry and his wife and bind them between 
him and another woman. This would be defeating 
Christ's own words and setting aside in other like 
cases His gospel. 

Admitting by literal construction that Christ did 
give these powers to Peter while Christ knew the 
frailties of human nature down the ages, and that 
good Peter had denied Christ three times, and that 
Christ had called Peter Satan (Matt. xvi. 23). Is it 
not proof positive that He did not intend Peter's 
pow< ra to extend beyond his life. At best under 
such plain and positive language, if Christ had in- 
tended it, he certainly would have given the power 
to extend Peter's powers to others in equally plain 
and definite language. No such language can be 
found in His gospel, nor can it be found by any 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 25 

strained construction, and therefore we say that no 
such power was given to Peter to extend. 

It is unnecessary to say that but for the Pope 
claiming to be the head of Christ's Church by reason 
of vicegerent powers derived by apostolic succession, 
this application of King Henry would never have 
been made. We do not go too far then in saying 
that the scenes enacted subsequent to this applica- 
tion would never have stained history but for this 
claim of the Pope. 

We do not know what passed between King Henry 
and the Pope except his refusal to grant the dispen- 
sation. If the Pope had been a little more concilia- 
tory and communicated to the King something in this 
wise, the result might have been something different. 

"It is not in my power to grant you this dispensa- 
tion, as it would be a violation of the VII. command- 
ment, for Christ said, Matt. v. 32, 'But I say unto 
you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving 
for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit 
adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is 
divorced shall commit adultery.' God has given you 
a conscience and free will to sin or not, therefore the 
sin will be yours, and the xmnishment will be yours 
without forgiveness." Is it not reasonable to con- 
clude that this reproof, given in a true christian spirit, 
might have changed the result. 

Among the powers given to Peter was that of rais- 
ing the dead, and every one knows that neither the 
Pope or any other man can do that, as if the power 
was exercised it would defeat the organic laws of 
God. Is it not therefore worthy of the serious con- 
sideration of this powerful and useful organization 
in a way, to abandon a claim that if exercised would 
destroy that which by other conceded claims is cal- 
culated to build up and beautify for the glory of God. 
In our humble judgment such a course would remove 
deep rooted prejudices and would be a great impulse to 
its extension, and as we look at the question it would 
undoubtedly be the wish of every true christian. 

We now will give some of the effects of the denial 
of the Pope to the application of King Henry, and 



26 Appeal for Christian Unity. 

the result shows plainly that there was something 
deeper and stronger in the mind of the English people 
than the simple denial of a dispensation. King 
Henry was as bad a man as ever lived, and this feather 
thrown upon his deep seated prejudices, his passions 
flashed like dynamite to destroy everything catholic 
in his realm. It is unreasonable to suppose that such 
a trifle in itself could have moved all England to the 
steps taken against the Catholics, to confiscate their 
property, burn their churches, seminaries, and mur- 
der their people by thousands and tens of thousands, 
and deprive them of all civil rights. Still this was 
done through the reigns of King Henry, King Ed- 
ward and Queen Elizabeth. 

We do not pretent to say that all England approved 
of the course pursued by King Henry, but the scaffold 
or acquiescence was their choice. The King assumed 
the position of self-made Pope to the religion he 
established, and he had the Parliament at his back 
to enforce by law his conceptions. The Anglican 
organization was the result. It adopted the Apostles' 
Creed as its belief and the faith deduced therefrom, 
and of course adopted faith and baptism as a means 
of entering Christ's Church, and thus they became a 
christian organization, having placed itself upon the 
foundation principles of the christian religion. About 
its discipline we have nothing to say, being outside 
the subject matter in hand. 

The same spirit of persecution was continued in 
1850 by an attempt to pass in Parliament what was 
called the penal bill. We extract a few passages 
from the letters of the Rev. D. W. Cahill, D.D., a 
Catholic Divine, to Lord John Russell, of date Novem- 
ber 4th, 1851. "We charge you before a revengeful 
heaven with the exile and death of our people; both 
crimes lie at your door, and you have added ingrati- 
tude to cruelty; we honored you, we -followed you. 
You did not so much surprise us by the introduction 
of your penal bill as by the historical falsehood and 
insulting bigotry of your speeches. They were un- 
worthy the historian, below the dignity of the states- 
man and dishonorable to the man. A third rate 



Appeal for Christian Unity. 27 

orator amongst your own party, and a fifth rate 

speaker in the whole house, you never could lay 

claim to • distinction, except from the supposed 

honesty and liberality of your political opinions ; 

but now your inconsistency and your bigotry having 

torn from your face the mask which concealed your 

mediocrity, it is agreed that the foremost leader of 

the Whigs has been befittingly transformed into the 

last hack of the tories." 

************.* 

'•'Alas! alas, where shall I begin to tell your 
political career as regards poor trodden down, faith- 
ful, persecuted Ireland ? Nor is it with ink or paper 
I would attempt a description of the woes of your 
rule. No; no ! my lord, the deserted village, the 
waste land, the unfrequented chapel, the silent glen, 
the pale fare and the mournful national voice, stamp 
the history of Ireland, with the deep, deep impression 
of your administration; while the ferocity of the un- 
bridled landlord, and the terrors of the uprooted and 
mouldering cabin, and the cries of the houseless 
orphan, and the tears of the broken-hearted widow, 
and the emigrant ship, and the putrid workhouse, 
and the red oozing pit of the coffinless and shroudless 
dead, these, these, Oh ! all these are all the thrilling 
and eloquent witnesses, to publish to coming genera- 
tions and to unborn Irishmen the character and the 
laws of the Russell cabinet. Ah ! Sir, when you had 
read of the terrific facts of the mother living on the 
putrid remains of her own child ; and when you saw 
the awful account of several cases of the dead bodies 
of the poor Irish being exposed for days in unburied 
putridity, and devoured by dogs in this unheard of 
state; and when you had heard the cries that were waft- 
ed across the channel for help, and those that rose to 
heaven for mercy from Skibbereen, from Ballinasloe, 
from Kilrush and from Ballinrobe — has your heart, 
sir, ever smote you with remorse? that you heard 
these cries of Ireland with a pittiless composure and 
sent to starving and dying millions a heartless pit- 
tance from your overflowing treasury ? History fells 
the remainder, and history repents itself." 



28 



CHRIST'S CHURCH. 



We ask the all-important question, was Christ's 
Mission on earth to establish terrestrial churches, so 
called, or to establish the christian religion upon the 
laws of God, and upon the teachings in His gospel ? 
Some may answer this question that His mission was 
to establish terrestrial churches, but the consensus of 
opinion we believe would be that His mission was to 
establish the christian religion and His church as the 
receptacle. We all understand what a terrestrial 
church is, and a number of them is also called the 
church of the denomination. For what object are such 
structures made ? They are places made for people 
to assemble in, and hear the word of (rod explained 
and taught ; and by such teachings some are converted 
to the true faith and are baptized into Christ's Church, 
they are also used by them as places of worship. 

Christ gave to His twelve apostles a mandatory law 
to teach His gospel to all nations, but we fail to find 
any directions by Him to them to build terrestrial 
churches or teach in such churches. The word church 
is used to represent so many different entities that 
there has been great confusion resulting by using the 
same word to represent these entities. Christ first 
used it to name His spiritual Church, and many 
therefore believe that the name governs the entity 
and not the entity that governs the meaning of the 
name. To show that the terrestrial churches are not 
precedents to the achievement of Christ's Church, we 
refer to Acts ii. 47. "And the Lord added to the 
church daily such as should be saved." 

From which we learn that no one can be saved 
except they get into the church. The question is, 
what church was meant, the church that Catholics call 
Church, or Christ's Church ? Were there two 
churches, Peter's and Christ's, or was there but one 
church ? If so, who had the title to it, Peter or 
Christ ? Christ spoke of His church and said He 
would build it upon this rock, that He was the Son of 
the Living God and the truths of His gospel. Peter 
was simply a teacher of Christ's gospel with permis- 



Christ's Church. 29 

sive powers given liim by -Christ, but we fail to lind 
any record that he ever used these powers, nor is it 
evidence that the possession of powers necessarily 
calls for their exercise. 

What is Christ's Church? We answer that it is 
substantially the gospel of Jesus Christ and the con- 
stitution of the christian religion, and is not a material 
entity or terrestrial organization. It is made up of 
laws of God, reiterated by Jesus Christ, and those 
laws are conditional promises of God and Christ to 
mankind for obedience or disobedience of other laws of 
the gospel. These promises of God and Christ are the 
head and controlling laws of the christian constitution. 

These laws are the proclamation of Jesus Christ to 
mankind to show them the road to salvation and His 
Church is that road. Then what are the guide boards 
that He nailed to His cross to conduct the christian 
into the gates of His Church ? Belief that He was the 
only Son of the Living God and faith in the truth of 
His gospel. The next is baptism into His church, 
which is sealing the covenant of the promises of 
Christ and God to mankind that thereafter each one 
covenanting shall live up to the requirements of the 
gospel. They are then in Christ's Church where 
there is One Lord, one faith and one baptism. 

There must of necessity be a clear distinction made 
between a divine law and the subject upon which the 
law operates. As for example, the law of gravity 
operates universally and always the same, and by its 
use we are enabled to carry on all the business of life, 
and without it we could do nothing. 

Important and useful as the law is, in the apostolic 
times the law was unknown, yet the people had the 
free use of it then as they have now, and so it was 
with many other laws, but lately discovered. The 
discovery of a law changes nothing, but may explain 
many things that before were strange and sometimes 
mysterious. How absurd it would be for any one 
knowing what the law of gravity is, and how it acts, 
to call the houses, buildings, and the community 
occupying them the law of gravity. 

Let us then give Christ's Church its proper name 



30 Christ's Church. 

and position as the head law of the gospel governing 
all its other laws and all terrestrial organizations 
teaching the gospel. Ten thousand years of teaching 
an error will never make it a truth, though it may be 
difficult to acknowledge it. 

The gospel record is our christian law, and to it we 
must refer all our conclusions and differences of 
opinion. The law has two objects, one of reward in 
the life to come of a state of happiness for obeying 
the law in this life, and one of punishment for dis- 
obeying it. The gospel plainly sets forth these two 
positions, and they are confirmed by the word of God 
and promises of Jesus Christ. These promises are 
the Grand Magna Charta of the Christian framed in 
Heaven and sent to earth in escro with Jesus Christ, 
and He has established His Church to be the dis- 
pensary of them to the people of the earth. 

What are the conditions under which man can 
avail himself of the benefits of the Magna Charta 
and become a party to the agreement ? The con- 
ditions are so plainly laid down by Christ that there 
can be no misunderstanding them. These are belief 
in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God, and of 
the truths of His gospel, or in other words, that 
Christ is God's authority. This belief being perfect, in- 
volves the faith in the plan of Christianity as Divine. 

The convert then is prepared on his part to accept 
the Magna Charta and close the agreement between 
him and his God to thenceforward follow and obey 
the teachings of Christ's gospel. 

Christ's instructions as to what the converter is to 
do to accept this agreement and affix his seal. They 
are — that he is to be baptized into his Church, when 
the agreement between the parties becomes a binding 
law, and the accepting party becomes a member of 
Christ's Church, and this agreement being of Divine 
authority, no human power can depose him. Once a 
member always a member, and if he commits sin God 
will punish him, but no earthly power can do so. 

If he belongs to a religious organization, with by- 
laws as discipline, he can be deposed as a member of 
that organization, or such other action ns the by-laws 



CJirisPs Church. 31 

may designate ; but no action of the organization can 
interfere with any Divine law, or with the agreement 
between God and Man, the Magna Charta. 

This Magna Charta contains all the required rela- 
tions between God and man on and after its accept- 
ance by any human being. He binds himself, or 
she binds herself to obey all the laws of God, material 
and spiritual. He or she is then in Christ's Church, 
and this is what the name means. Its institution by 
Christ was to be universal for the benelit of all man- 
kind, and hence was not to be confined to any section, 
or to any particular organization. It is more than 
everlasting, for it will survive all temporal things 
and all existing laws except itself, and will be co- 
existent with God. 

As faith in the truth of Christ's gospel is an all- 
important point, it is essential to know just what that 
faith requires. There are so many constructions of 
the declarations of Christ, that some may be con- 
fused in determining what construction they should 
follow. It must be remembered that Christ requires 
faith in the truth of His gospel and not in any partic- 
ular construction of them ; mankind is so peculiarly 
constituted that they do not all see things alike, and 
hence draw different conclusions from the same state- 
ment. Christ in His wisdom knew this fact, and 
hence did not state any particular construction of 
His gospel as the essential to the true faith. 

A christian to be eligible for baptism into his 
Church is only bound to have the faith in the truth of 
His gospel. That truth may or may not be the con- 
struction in exactness which he has been taught, or 
which he has understood from his reading, and if he 
has used Ms best intellect in endeavoring to sift out 
the exact truth, be will not be held responsible if 
over this he believes in the truth of Christ's gospel. 
It is the intention and determination to believe the 
gospel as truth, that is the essential to be the faith, and 
not in any particular construction. Therefore have 
charity, and judge not that you may not be judged. 

We will now give the mandatory laws of Jesus 
Christ which the Christian must obey after entering 



32 Christ's Church, 

His Church. These consist of God' s organic laws which 
Christ was sent on earth as a Missionary to teach to 
the world, which He did, and then He appointed 
twelve apostles with certain Divine powers to teach 
as missionaries from Christ, the nations of the earth. 

LAWS THAT CHRISTIANS MUST OBEY. 

God's Organic Laws. 

To accept God as the Creator of all things Visible 
and Invisible. 

To accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as 
His Missionary to the world, to establish the Chris- 
tian religion and to be the Saviour of mankind. 

To accept the Holy Ghost as the mind of God and 
Jesus Christ. 

To accept God's material and immaterial laws, and 
for obedience of them rewards of happiness in the life 
to come and for disobedience of them, punishment. 

Ten Commandments Given to Moses. 
I. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. 

II. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven 
image nor the likeness of anything that is in 
the heavens above or in the earth beneath or 
in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not 
bow down to them nor worship them, For I 
the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit 
the sins of the fathers upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation of them that 
hate me and show mercy unto thousands in 
them that love me and keep my command- 
ments. 

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 

God in Vain, for the Lord will not hold him 
guiltless that taketh His name in vain. 

IV. Remember that thou keep Holy the Sabbath 

day. Six days shalt thou labor and do all 
that thou hast to do, but the seventh day is 
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou 



Christ's Church. 33 

shalt do no manner of work, thou and thy son 
and thy daughter, thy man servant and thy 
maid servant, thy cattle and the stranger that 
is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that 
in them is, and rested the seventh day. 
Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day 
and hallowed it. 

Y. Honor thy father and mother that thy days 
may be long in the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee. 

YL Thou shalt do no murder. 

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

VIII. Thou shalt not steal. 

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 

neighbour. 

X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; 

thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor 
his servant nor his maid nor his ox or his ass, 
nor anything that is his. 

Christ's Two Commandments. 

XL Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 

thy heart and with all thy soul and with all 

thy mind. 
XII. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

On these two commandments hang all the 

law and the prophets. 

The other mandatory Laws of Christ's Gospel are 
prayer, faith, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the most 
useful and important one given to His apostles was 
to preach the gospel to all the nations of the earth. 

CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS. 

These organizations have grown out of the neces- 
sity of spreading and teaching the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. They were unknown in their present shape 
at the time of the early teachings by the Apostles. 



34 Christian Organizations. 

There was then but one embryo organization of 
which Peter was the head, and no laws existing by 
which it could be recognized to enable it to hold pro- 
perty and build buildings for places of meeting for 
instruction and worship. It then did not exist as it 
now exists with civil law to enable it to hold pro- 
perty, build cathedrals, seminaries, and various other 
places for teaching and spreading the gospel. We 
fail to find anything in Christ's instructions to the 
apostles directing such organizations or the building 
of such buildings. 

His instructions to His apostles were to teach His 
gospel to all nations, and that gospel contained every- 
thing necessary for faith, morals and practices. Did 
Christ give His apostles the sole right to teach His 
gospel ? We think not, as that would defeat the 
very object He had in view of spreading His gospel. 

Did Christ direct or empower His apostles to ap- 
point men in His name to teach the gospel ? We do 
not find any such thing in His gospel ! Did he deny 
to any one the right to teach his gospel? We answer 
most emphatically No ! Then if any one teaches the 
truth of His gospel with good intent to make converts 
to the Christian faith, how does his position differ 
from that of any other teacher of the same things ? 
As teachers both stand on precisely the same footing 
and foundation, they both teach the essentials for 
salvation, both are members of Christ's Church, both 
pursue the same conduct for the Christian prescribed 
by the gospel. 

The question naturally arises in one's mind why 
they did not use the name of Christ's Church in the 
Apostles' Creed instead of the "Holy Catholic 
Church," and why they changed that name in the 
Nicene Creed to u One Catholic Apostolic Church ?" 
The name " Church" is the noun in the three cases, 
when it is used and "Christ's" "Holy Catholic " 
and "One Catholic Apostolic" are the adjectives, 
making the kind of Church meant in each instance. 
"Holy Catholic Church" or "Holy Catholic" or 
"One Catholic Apostolic Church." or "One Catholic 
Apostolic" are not to be found in Christ's gospel; 



CJiristian Organizations. 85 

they are therefore not biblical and must be treated 
like any ordinary language as not inspired. 

There is one other saying in the Apostles' Creed 
that we do not find in the Gospel, the " Communion 
of Saints." This with the Holy Catholic Church are 
subjects of construction, while all the remainder of 
the Creed is found in the gospel. 

As there is but one Church mentioned in the gos- 
pel, we are bound to construe Holy Catholic Church 
as the Holy universal Church of Christ, and the Com- 
munion of Saints which at that time referred evident- 
ly and of necessity to the apostles' agreement in faith. 

The Nicene Creed covers considerable more ground 
than the Apostles' Creed, as will be seen by any one 
reading the two, but cannot be regarded as an abro- 
gation of the Apostles' Creed but an extension of it, 
so the catholics were sure of being right and they 
believe and practice upon the two as one. It is not 
strange therefore that they should believe in the One 
Catholic Apostolic Organization which they founded 
themselves, a privilege which auy Christian Organi- 
zation has as of inherent right. We therefore say dis- 
tinctly that the Roman Catholic Organization has the 
right to make its own discipline, frame its own consti- 
tution and practice their own worship, provided they 
donot interfere impliedly or otherwise with the social, 
political or religious right of their neighbors or others. 

Tt is well for us to consider the true positions and 
conditions of religious organizations without any 
squeamishness as to terms. They are business organi- 
zations having for their purpose the accomplishment 
of a certain end, and this is the object of every 
earthly organization and of all individual or collective 
effort. The object to be obtained by religious organi- 
zations is to lay up treasure in heaven, while the 
object of all other earthly effort is to lay up treasure 
on parth. No wonder why religious organizations have 
different discipline and pursue different means of ac- 
complishing the same end. One set of men consider 
the course they pursue the best to accomplish their 
object, while another think differently and pursue 
another course, each finally arriving at the same end. 



36 Christian Organizations. 

This is a universal rule applied to all earthly efforts. 

All business Christian Organizations follow the 
same general principles in their pursuit that stimulate 
all other business pursuits, and that is to take such 
a course of action as to produce the greatest result by 
taking the best means according to their judgment of 
conducting the business. Scarce two farmers ever 
till their ground alike for the same crop; scarce two 
merchants pursue the same course in business, nor 
any two corporations aiming to accomplish the same 
end. Yet the two farmers are rewarded with the 
same crops; the two merchants make equal amounts 
of money, and the two corporations serve the com- 
munity with equal success. It is therefore apparent 
that it is not the particular manner of doing the busi- 
ness of the discipline of Christian Organization that 
is controlling and essential, but to accomplish the 
required result and reach the goal. 

As a necessary result for success, every organization 
and every industrial effort must have a head, and the 
organization be guarded by conventional rules, and 
when applied to governments terrestrial, or govern- 
ments celestial, these rules are called laws. The 
religious organizations being comprised of part of the 
people governed, must of necessity come under the 
governmental law. So that these organizations are 
recognized as business organizations and are incor- 
porated like them, with power to transact their 
business, hold property and do all other things 
authorized by their charter. 

They then perform all the duties as a citizen re- 
quired of them by the law. Among those duties are 
the payment of taxes necessary to the payment of 
the legal expenses of the government. These taxes 
are generally remitted on the property of the religious 
organizations; other taxes however are not, and the 
money thus obtained passes into the public treasury 
to be used according to law. The title of the tax 
payer to his money ceases on its payment. No one 
can therefore ask to have the money thus paid re- 
turned to him for his uses in promoting his indi- 
Tidual interest, or that of the organization to which 



Christian Organizations. 37 

he belongs, and if he does, it is incipient mutiny 
against the law of equal rights and equal privileges. 

These religious organizations are chartered under 
the tacit understanding that they will not disseminate 
among the peoples disintegrating elements, such as 
the possession of individual powers and distinctions, 
which they deny to those granting such privileges, 
or to any one else on the earth. Hence these powers 
and distinctions should be founded upon plain lan- 
guage in Scripture, and should not be claimed to be 
derived from deductions and doubtful constructions. 
In this Government of equal laws, equal rights, and 
equal privileges, such unequal doctrines must in the 
end produce conflict. There is conflict now in opinion 
and as that strengthens and grows, each party becomes 
stronger and stronger in their opinions till history 
repeats itself. 

If these claims of the Catholic Organization were 
necessary to Salvation of Souls, and they were found 
in plain language as other requirements are, in 
Christ's Gospel, we would ask that they should be 
posted in letters of gold on every door-post in the 
country; but they are not claimed to be such, nor are 
they, but are a discipline of the organization made 
by individuals and continued by others who were and 
are alone effected by them directly, while they have 
a bearing upon the exclusive reception of that religion 
and go to sustain the Theology that this terrestrial 
organization is alone the true Church of Jesus Christ. 

There is great stress put upon the following pass- 
age to show that the Roman Catholic Organization is 
alone Christ's Church. 

Matt, xviii. 15. Moreover if thy brother shall 
trespass against thee go and tell him his fault be- 
tween him and thee alone; if he shall hear thee then 
thou hast gained thy brother. 

16. But if he will not hear thee, then take with 
thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or 
three witnesses every word may be established. 

17. And if he shall neglect to hear thee tell if unto 
the Church, but if he neglect to hear the Church, let 
him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. 



38 Christian Organizations. 

Here was a legal moral question to be decided, and 
we have Christ's method of deciding it. He told 
them to refer it to the Church. What Church? This 
was before the Apostles commenced their ministry 
and before any organization of the Catholics. At 
that time there was but one Church, and that was 
Christ's Church which He had proclaimed, and He 
referred this legal question to the law of His Church. 

The Church being the head law of the gospel, it 
was natural that He should refer all moral questions 
to it for decision. 

This principle is more clearly set forth in another 
passage, Luke x. 25. And behold a certain lawyer 
stood up, and tempted him, saying Master what shall 
I do to inherit eternal life ? 

26. He said unto him, What is written in the 
law ? How readest thou ? 

27. And he answering said, thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy 
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. 

28. And He said unto him, thou hast answered 
right. This do and thou shalt live. 

Christ there approved of the lawyer gaining know- 
ledge by reading the Scripture without the aid of any 
terrestrial organization, which is a very important 
point in this discussion. 

COMPOSITION OF CHRISTIAN 
ORGANIZATIONS. 

These organizations are composed of three classes 
of people namely, — Those who attend meetings held 
for instruction only, those who are legal members of 
the organization, and members of Christ's Church 
who have been baptized into it. 

The first class are those who are attracted for vari- 
ous reasons, from curiosity, desire to see and be seen, 
to gain religious information and so on. The second 
class are the essential material of the organization, 
are legal members of it and constitute the business 
portion of the congregation, make the by-laws and 



Composition of Christian Organizations. 39 

assist in establishing the Discipline. The third class 
occupy in a congregation two positions. One as a 
member of the business organization, and one as a 
member of Christ's Church, having accepted the faith 
that Christ was the Son of the living God and been 
baptized in that faith. 

All Christian organizations that accept the Apostles' 
Creed as the basis of faith, are entitled to the appel- 
lation of Christian Denominations, and all those who 
do not, are not entitled to that high distinction. 
That creed embodies the landmarks of Christ's Gospel. 
The manner of organization of these denominations 
being mainly done by business men having business 
views of things, they naturally mix up terrestrial 
matter with the principles of religion, and hence 
they have disciplines which are not contained, or to 
be found in Christ's Gospel. Still the teachers teach 
the principles of the gospel in addition to the carry- 
ing out the required discipline and as far as they 
teach Christ's Gospel, they are teaching Christianity; 
but if the discipline does not bear directly upon it, 
they are talking to the wind about subjects not con- 
nected with the Christian religion. 

The machinery of discipline in some organizations 
is so cumbersome and onerous, that it discourages the 
layman from undertaking it, instead of inviting him 
by the simplicity of Christ's teachings. This state 
of things involves the necessity of laymen thinking 
for themselves and striking out to discover the simple 
kernels of Christianity. It now takes a candidate 
for the ministry to go through a regular course of 
Seminary Studies to find out what he is to teach of 
the gospel and discipline of his denomination, for we 
call discipline all that is preached in the pulpit out- 
side the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Most of the quarrels within denominations and be- 
twixt denominations are due to points of discipline, 
and these are generally called heresies. They are 
simply differences of opinion as to whether the 
teacher is following the discipline or not. There are 
very few cases of heresy upon the fundamental doc- 
trines of Christianity. The greatest Christian quarrel 



40 Composition of Christian Organizations. 

of the world which resulted in the Protestant Refor- 
mation was caused by a point of Discipline of the 
Roman Catholic Organization "by reason of King 
Henry VIII. being a catholic ; the question at issue 
had to be referred to the Pope. 

There is nothing in the Christian world that re- 
quires so rigid an examination and amendment as 
this subject of Discipline. The gospel of Christ and 
the principles of Christianity will take care of them- 
selves, but the main machinery of the mode of this 
dissemination requires revision because it is continu- 
ally changing. 

That the layman may be relieved of responsibility 
of errors of construction and general teachings out- 
side of the gospel, he must himself know what the 
requirements of that gospel are for his salvation. If 
he can by any means arrive at that information, he 
can discard all teachings inconsistent with it. 

Accident, education, association and various other 
causes bring him into attendance of a given denomi- 
nation of Christians, and he becomes a member of 
that denomination, without, as a general rule, being 
able to assign any reason for doing so. He has a 
responsibility of his own, as well as the ministers 
who teach him. He should first ascertain whether 
that denomination accepts the Apostles' Creed as the 
basis of faith, which is that Christ was the only Son 
of the living God and that Christ's Gospel is truth, 
and that the true faith and baptism are essential to 
become a member of Christ's Church, and as a member 
he is bound to live according to the requirements of 
the Gospel. 

Every layman taking an interest in his Salvation 
should know these basic principles of Christianity, 
and it is easy for him to ascertain whether these are 
the acknowledged principles of the denomination to 
which he proposes to belong, and if his enquiries are 
assured in the affirmative it is a Christian denomina- 
tion and safe for him to trust himself and his salva- 
tion to its teachings and instruction. The com- 
munity of interests between the teacher and the lay- 
man are such that enquiries by the layman should 



Composition of Christian Organizations. 41 

not be considered as an interference with the preroga- 
tives of the teacher, but should be evidence to him of 
a deep interest in the subject. 

The responsibility for digressive preaching from 
the Gospel in pulpits, is not alone the responsibility 
of the preachers, for the layman should inform him- 
self so as to be able to check such digressions by con- 
ciliatory objections. This would have the effect of 
doing away with much of the useless and often dam- 
aging harangues frequently heard from itinerant 
preachers in pulpits consecrated to the services of 
God. If the Christian literature, and pulpit oratory of 
the day could be infused with more Christian Charity 
and love, they would all come nearer obeying the 
Eleventh and Twelfth Commandments of Jesus Christ. 

GOD'S ORGANIC LAWS. 

The great scheme of existence of all things which 
culminate in the establishment of the Christian 
religion should be considered as a unit, and that 
religion and the acts which brought it into existence 
as the crowning factor. Without this view, Christi- 
anity standing alone upon its merits even, fails of 
the proofs and support which it has when linked into 
the chain of events which led up to its establishment. 
In fact it is impossible to see how a full and clear 
conception of Christianity can be arrived at by any 
reflecting mind without a knowledge of every pre- 
ceding element upon which it depends for its exist- 
ence. We do not wish to be understood as saying 
that a person cannot be a sincere christian and enjoy 
all the benefits resulting therefrom without the know- 
ledge of every preceding step in this chain of events. 

How is a knowledge of these events to be obtained ? 
As the first and all important requisite at least, the 
enquirer must believe in God the Author and Creator 
of all things, visible and invisible, and believe in the 
inspired record of the Creation and the Jewish 
religion in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament 
and in Christ's Gospel in the original greek in the 
New Testament. Without this belief the "inquirer 



42 God's Organic Laws. 

would be limited to what he sees in nature, and what 
he could hear of Jesus Christ as a man and not as 
man and God in combination. Even this knowledge 
should be sufficient to lead his mind on to investigate 
the further and loftier subject, but with this limited 
belief and knowledge he would be unqualified to 
reach the true name and position of the Christian. 
Assuming then that the enquirer believes in God, in 
Jesus Christ, in the inspiration of at least that por- 
tion of Scripture relating to the Creation, to the 
Jewish religion, to the Christian religion, and that. 
God and Christ have the same mind usually called 
the Holy Ghost, he is prepared to enter upon the 
facts of God's Organic Laws. 

The Creation and the Organic laws resulting for 
the regulation of all things, is the normal- idea that 
presents itself to the reflecting mind. Following the 
creation in the order given in the Genesis, we see the 
controlling principle that governs all things, namely, 
the dependence of one thing upon another. Thus 
the order of creation begins by God creating space, 
or room to put His other Creations in, and called in 
the Hebrew heaven or expanse, and then the creation 
of primordial matter, (earth without form and void), 
then the light, then the waters, then the dry land 
(earth primordial matter combined), then the gather- 
ing together the waters to make seas, lakes and 
rivers, then the planting of the Vegetable Kingdom, 
then giving motion to the Heavenly Bodies to give us 
days, nights and seasons, then to create the inhabi- 
tants of the waters and the animal kingdom, and 
finally to make Adam (incorrectly translated in all 
Bibles "man" because in Gen. v. 2, Adam is specifi- 
cally defined as " male and female " created in the day 
of creation and named Adam, and then created The 
Adam (mistranslated man) the husband of Eve, and 
then another class of male and female, making in all 
of human beings created one class of male and female 
under the name of Adam (the Gentile race) and The 
Adam the husband of Eve and the other class of male 
and female being Hebrews. 



God's Organic Laws. 43 

The first chapter of Genesis in our judgment is the 
most important one of the entire Bible^ as it is the 
history of the foundation of all God's works, and of 
all His laws, material and immaterial, and is of ne- 
cessity the ground work of the Christian religion, 
and still it is the most neglected portion of Scripture, 
and probably for the reason that there are so many 
mistakes of translation that have run so long, no one 
is desirous of being the iirst to rectify them. It has 
thus become the least understood of all the Bible. 

The Creations, the establishment of the Organic 
Laws of God, the creation of mankind, the establish- 
ment of the Jewish religion, the sending of Jesus 
Christ as a Missionary from God to the world, His 
teachings, His examples, His crucifixion, His rising 
from the dead, His ascension, leaving behind Him 
His established Church, are links in the great chain 
that bind man to his God. Each link is of equal 
binding strength upon humanity and the Christian's 
education should embrace them all equally. 

The importance of each link in the chain can be read- 
ily seen by asking the question, what would the Chris- 
tian religion be if any one of them was eliminated? 

The question answers itself and shows the import- 
ance of each and every one of them to finish the beau- 
tiful structure for the instruction and admiration of 
the Christian Student. Independent of the informa- 
tion as to the God plan of Christianity these links will 
serve a double purpose as elucidations of the main 
subject and as coincident proofs of the record where 
they are found, for the scientific proposition is that 
when two straight lines coincide in two points, they 
coincide throughout. The one straight line being 
the inspired portions of the Old and New Testament, 
and the other straight line being the Organic laws of 
God, and by comparing the two any number of coinci- 
dences can be found. 

It is well then to see what the Organic laws of God 
are as defined in nature, and in the Scripture Inspira- 
tion both natural and spiritual. 



44 God's Organic Laws. 

THE ORGANIC LAWS. 

God the Creator of all things visible and invisible. 

Jesus Christ the Son of God and Saviour of mankind. 

The Holy Ghost the mind of God and Jesus Christ. 

The material and immaterial Laws of God govern- 
ing the Universe and mankind. 

Obedience of mankind to these laws. 

Rewards in the life to come to mankind for obedi- 
ence to them, and punishment for disobedience. 

The Ten Commandments delivered by God to Moses. 

These laws were all estalished within the six days 
of Creation and have continued unchanged to the 
present time, and will continue so to the end. Is it 
then of consequence that the Christian should under- 
stand the first chapter or Genesis, which, when in- 
vestigated, clearly and accurately gives the full 
account of the bringing into existence by the fiat of 
God c every conceivable entity with its qualities as a 
first form, and as a necessity of Divine Laws for their 
continuance and regulation. 

We look with amazement and wonder at the Sun, 
the Moon, the Planets and the Stars in Space, and 
why? Because of their immensity, and of their 
value to mankind. Each creation is dependent upon 
another, and all centre in use in support of the 
human races, and thus they become the avowed 
objects of creation. The more closely and minutely 
we examine all these things, the more the investi- 
gator becomes convinced that the design of God was 
to place man at the pinnacle, and all else under him. 
To illustrate this idea and show its magnitude, there- 
by to gain some conception of man's importance in the 
Universe, we quote an article from Chamber's Journal: 

IC The Distance to the Staks." 

"Astronomers agree in fixing the distance of the 
" nearest star at 22,000,000,000,000 miles, and we are 
" probably not far from the truth if we set the dis- 



God's Organic Laws. 45 

" tance of Sirius at about 100,000,000,000 miles. It 
x; is calculated that the ball from an Armstrong 100- 
" pounder quits the gun with the speed of about 400 
"yards per second. Now, if this velocity could be 
"'kept up it would require no fewer than 100,000,000 
" years before the ball could reach Sirius." 

WHAT WE SEE AND KNOW. 

It is admitted that there are now and have been 
since the establishment of the Christian era, six dis- 
tinct races of humanity upon the earth, and if they 
are reproduced in purity of type without hybridity, 
the reproduction will be the same in each race. 
These races are the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the 
Malay, the Indian, the Negro, and the Hebrew. At 
the time of the establishment of the Christian re- 
ligion, these races were all on the earth, and are now 
here, and the Christian is bound to acknowledge and 
not deny this Organic law of God. True science and 
an every day observation have developed and traced 
in action the laws of reproduction in these races, 
while the Theologians have battled with these scient- 
ists on the theology of the unity of the race in Adam 
and Eve. 

The Churches by their teachings, and all orthodox 
sacred writers have maintained that Adam and Eve 
were our first parents from whom all humanity on 
earth have been produced. Such is the strength and 
depth of this education, that whenever reference is 
made to the subject, they throw aside the organic 
law of God, and insist upon calling Adam and Eve 
our first parents. 

At this point arises an important question: Are we 
to take as our guide in reading the Genesis, the 
original Hebrew, which gives us a diversity of origin 
in the human family, or shall we lake as our guide 
the theologians translation of it, which makes or 
endeavors to make the human family to have come 
from Adam and Eve? As the Hebrew is the admitted 
and undoubted inspiration of God, and as it differs 
widely from the English and other translations fco 



46 God's Organic Laws. 

which we refer, we adopt the Hebrew as our guide in 
the account of Creation in the Genesis. 

It may be a surprise to some readers of the English 
Bible that Adam in the Hebrew was not the name of 
Eve's husband, nor was Eve created in the six days 
of creation, but was made from the rib of The Adam, 
the name of her husband, sometime after he had been 
put into the Garden of Eden. And although the 
name of Eve's husband, The Adam, appears in the 
first Eleven Chapters of Genesis in the Hebrew forty- 
seven times by name and identity, her husband's name 
has never yet appeared in any translation of the Bible. 

St. Paul was the author of the Theology of the 
Unity of the race in Adam. That dogma is not 
found either in the account of Creation in the He- 
brew, or in the Jewish religion, in the Old Testament 
or in Christ's Gospel in the New. Still it has been 
taught in the early Churches following the lead of St. 
Paul to the present time as Church discipline. As 
that dogma has no foundation in truth now, nor had 
it at the time the Christian religion was inaugurated, 
the Christian must reject it and cling to the Bibli- 
cal record in the Hebrew as an Organic Law of God. 

It is difficult to determine exactly where the error 
arose, but as the present Hebrew is from the Hebrew 
manuscripts from which the translation into the 
Greek was made, it is reasonable to suppose that the 
mistake occurred in Septuagent in the Greek, as from 
this translation was made into the Latin, and from 
this all other translations have been made. It was a 
very natural mistake as the material laws were not 
well understood, and the tradition of that day was 
that all humanity had sprung from a single pair. 

In the King James Bible the translators in order 
to make the account correspond with the unity of the 
race, were compelled to drop these important Hebrew 
words, namely "Adam," "Tl\e Adam" and the 
word " And," at the head of Genesis i. 27, and sub- 
stitute "man" for "Adam" and "The Adam," and 
" so " for the Hebrew word "And." Further in the 
account by interchangeably using "Adam" for 
"The Adam," and translating "The Adam" "the 



GocPs Organic Laws. 47 

man," and leaving out of sight the name The Adam 
the husband of Eve, they made out the unity of the 
race in Adam and Eve. 

This being a very important point for the Christ- 
ian to understand, we give the two verses* in the 
Genesis which is all that relates to the creation of 
mankind and also give the Genesis v. 2, which clearly 
defines the name Adam in the day of Creation. 

Gfenesis i. 26. And God said let us make Adam in 
our image after our likeness, and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon, the 
earth. 

Gen. i. 27. And God created The Adam in His 
own image, in the image of God created He him; male 
and female created He them. 

Gen. v. 2. Male and female created He them and 
blessed them, and called their names Adam in the 
day when they were created. 

From this it will be seen that Adam was the name 
given by God to a class of male and female created, 
and hence could not be the husband of Eve, while 
The Adam was an individual man created, and after 
he was put into the Garden of Eden to dress it and 
keep it, the following took place: 

Gen. ii. 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep 
to fall upon The Adam and he slept, and He took one 
of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 

Gen. ii. 22. And the rib which the Lord God had 
taken from The Adam made He a woman and brought 
her unto The Adam. 

This settles definitely some important points. 
First, that The Adam, not Adam, was the husband of 
Eve. Second, that Eve was not created on the day of 
creation among the females then created. There 
having been others created and living before she was 
made, about which there can be no question, the 
translation or construction of unity of the race in the 
following verse, is a bold error. 

Gen. ii. 20. And The Adam called his wife's name 
Eve because she was the mother of all living. 



48 God's Organic Laws. 

If the construction of this verse is that Eve was the 
mother of all living of the Jewish line that was to 
evolve Jesus Christ, then it is correct. 

Gen. i. 20, is the record of the Creation of the 
Gentile races, namely, the Caucasian, Mongolian, 
Malay, Indian, and .Negro, while Gen. i. 27, records 
the creation of the Hebrew race which includes the 
Jews. This is proven by the word dominion in Gen. 
i. 26. The live gentile races have held dominion of 
the earth during all history, while the Hebrews, in 
part the Jews, attempted to build the Tower of Babel 
and become a nation, but God frustrated their design 
and scattered them among the Isles of the Gentiles 
and nations of the earth by confusing their language. 
They made a second attempt in Babylon, with the 
same result. 

The drift of the account and history goes to show 
that the earth was peopled in numbers substantially 
as they now exist. The Caucasian having been 
created in Europe, the Mongolians and Malays in 
Eastern Asia, the Negroes in Africa, and the Indians 
in America. This requires the necessity of the 
creation of the Vegetable Kingdom substantially as 
it now exists for food of the animal kingdom, and 
for humanity. In short, that this earth and all upon 
it was created substantially as it now exists and has 
been continued by the never varying law of God by 
reproduction in type. 

The reading world requires to be electrified and 
amused, hence we see how readily it snaps at any 
theory of creation. 

Geology came forward with a very plausible theory, 
having for its foundation that God could not create a 
fossil as well as any other reproduced thing that had 
parents. The parents of the fossil are the previous 
existence of plant or animal life and necessary food 
for its formation. The fossil is the completed result 
from existing parents, and so is man, and every other 
reproduced tiling. In the creation it was results that 
were created and not the parents, hence the fossil 
was created as a result the same as all other things 
were created. The geologists deny this and say that 



God?s Organic Laws. 49 

God could not create a fossil, and this is the founda- 
tion stone of their theory. We ask, how do they 
know that God could not create a fossil ? 

Geology is the old science of mineralogy electrified 
with the denial that God could hot create a fossil. 

The Mineralogical arrangement of the various 
rocks, minerals, &c, corresponding with the similar 
arrangement of parts of the human system have the 
same general arrangement of parts to make a whole. 
Having given any particular part we are enabled at 
once to tell its location in the completed body. Evo- 
lution is another theory that is attracting much 
attention from our pulpits. We do not intend to 
discuss the merits of this theory, but dismiss it with 
all other theories of Creation, as they are anti-bibli- 
cal and anti-christian. 

So far as they are anti biblical, we need not give 
arguments. We have a plain, simple and truly scien- 
tific account of the Creation in the Genesis, and 
Christians believe and assume it as the work of God 
and His inspiration. 

As far as we have seen of any theory of creation, 
nothing has yet appeared to overthrow that account. 
To deny the Genesis account of Creation, we must set 
aside a part of the Fourth Commandment, "For in 
six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, the sea 
and all that therein is and rested the seventh day." 
It is also part of Christ's teaching in His Gospel. 

All these theories which go to illustrate a different 
mode of Creation from the one laid down in the 
inspired Scripture, tend to bring Christianity into 
bad repute. They certainly do no good and no one 
can point to any good result that has come from 
them. When God abandoned His protection to the 
Jews and the Jewish religion and established the 
new Dispensation of the Christian religion with Christ 
as the Head, every element of the earth and all upon 
it and every natural law was in complete order. These 
with mankind were turned over to Christ as a new 
Creation with all the advantages of past experience 
and knowledge. 

Neither Christ nor His religion was called upon to 



50 r God's Organic Laws. 

defend any theories of creation or dogmas of religion. 
He had a free and open field and was alone to be 
guided by the laws which He found in operation at 
that time. There was nothing to interfere with 
Christ's Gospel and the new principles which it in- 
culcated; all was a new, bright and plain road. 

The Organic Laws of God together with the manda- 
tory laws which He was to lay down in His Gospel, 
were the only restraint upon His teachings. It was to 
be a new world, a new departure and a new revelation. 

We cannot be too emphatic on the point as to the 
responsibility of the Christian in accepting, obeying 
and teaching, that the material laws of God in opera- 
tion at the time of the establishment of the Christian 
Religion were the laws of God to be recognized as 
part of Christianity, and binding upon it. At that 
time six types of humanity existed upon the earth in 
numbers and have been uniformly reproduced in type 
from that time to the present. About this there can 
be no difference of opinion, it is an established his- 
toric fact. The Christian abstractly has nothing to 
do with theories, mistakes, mistranslations or tradi- 
tions on this point; he has the laws of God in opera- 
tion before his eyes daily and a knowledge that these 
laws of reproduction have never changed during the 
Christian Era. This definitely settles for the Chris- 
tian the question of the unity of the races from a 
single pair of human beings and confirms the account 
in the original Hebrew in Gen. i. 26, 27, and Gen. v. 
2, of a diversity of people created. 

We will now endeavor to show that the Organic 
Laws of God are all paralleled in the inspired record. 
The first laws named as organic were the existence of 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (the mind of God 
and Christ) as the Creator of all things visible and 
invisible and of mankind one of those specific acts. 
The specification of His being the Creator of all 
material things is found in the Genesis commencing 
with heaven (space) and then earth without form 
(primordial matter) and then light and then waters 
and then dry land (earth combined of primordial 
matter^ thpn the gathering together the waters to 



God? s Organic Laws. 51 

make seas, lakes, rivers, &c, and then planting the 
earth with the Vegetable Kingdom, then giving 
motion to the Heavenly bodies to make day, night and 
the seasons, then creating the fishes to populate the 
waters, and then the fowls to fly in the air, and then 
the animals of the earth, and lastly creating mankind. 
This is so clear and marvelously connects the Creator 
with the created, that words cannot improve the con- 
dition. 

The proof of the God Head being paralleled in the 
Genesis is found in the creation of Adam. 

Gen. i, 26. And God said Jet us make Adam in 
ouk image after our likeness, and let them have 
dominion, &c. 

While it is evident and plainly expressed that the 
creation of Adam was the act of the God Head, there 
is a singularity at first thought that the creation of 
The Adam was executed by God alone. 

Gen. i. 27. And God created The Adam in His own 
image; in the image of God created He him. 

There would seem to be about as much mystery in 
the language of these two creations as there is in the 
Creation itself. But a scrutinizing investigation 
will change that supposed mystery into a most inter- 
esting and valuable Biblical lesson. 

On the intelligent reading of these two accounts of 
creation rests the whole structure of the Biblical ac- 
count of the Christian religion. We do not wish to be 
understood as saying that the Christian religion de- 
pends upon the correct reading of these two verses, or 
upon the correct translation of any particular passage; 
but as mankind is the subject of religion, it is at least 
pleasant for the Christian to know that his creation 
from the hand of God is correctly given to him by 
teachers supposed to know what they are teaching. 

All the Organic Laws of God are universal in their 
action over the subjects to which they apply respect- 
ively, and the law of obedience is the next in order 
for consideration. 

The parallel of this law is found in the inspiration 
when God commanded The Adam not to eat of the 
tree of Life. Still he did eat of it through the per- 



52 God's Organic Laws. 

suasion of his wife Eve, and punishment immediately 
followed the disobedience. The cases of The Adam 
and of his daughters marrying into the Gentile races 
were the first and only ones recorded in the early 
history of disobedience; but they accumulate as the 
history goes on. 

All Christians acknowledge that obedience to the 
Laws of God and punishment for their disobedience 
are the two great boundary lines of the Christian 
religion, and were equally so for the Jewish religion, 
and have been universal laws from the creation of 
mankind, and equally binding upon all men. We 
cannot understand how a pious good man who obeys 
all the laws of God, and loves Him, and whose con- 
duct fulfils all the requirements of the Gospel should 
be held responsible, and be punished for the sins of 
another. The only exception made by God is found 
in the Fifth Commandment, where He declares that 
11 He is a jealous God and visits the sins of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
tions of them that hate Me and show mercy unto 
thousands that love Me and keep My Command- 
ments. " This is a mandatory law and controls all the- 
ologies and suppositions as to the transmission of sins, 
or responsibility for the sins of another, as the class 
to which the exception applies is only those who hate 
God, and its continuance only for a limited period. 

This theology of responsibility for sin committed 
by another has been as fruitful of discussion as the 
unity of the race on which it has been founded. The 
organic law is that sin against God's Laws will be 
punished. Now sin is an act, mental or otherwise, 
and if there is no act committed, according to this 
organic law there can be no punishment to follow. 

The theology of original sin in Adam requires sin 
in all of his descendants even beyond the third and 
fourth generations, even though they had committed 
no sin themselves. We say that the organic law of 
punishment for sin committed controls this question, 
that no one can be punished for sin of another be- 
cause he does not commit an act of sin which the 
organic law requires for punishment. 



God' s Organic Laws. 53 

We now come to the concluding organic laws of 
God. His ten Commandments given to Moses which 
ratify and confirm into mandatory laws all the pre- 
vious ones we have considered. "I am the Lord thy 
God," confirms the law of the God Head, for if it be 
admitted that there is a God, then it follows that 
there was a Divine Christ and the Holy Ghost the 
mind of God and Christ, 4i And show mercy unto 
thousands that love Me and keep My Command- 
ments." To love God is thus a mandatory law. Not 
to take the Lord's name in vain, keeping the Sabbath 
day holy, working six days and resting on the Sab- 
bath, are each mandatory laws. "For in six days 
the Lord made the Heaven and the Earth and all that 
in them is," confirms the literal account of Creation 
in the Genesis, and the material laws connected 
therewith. "Honor thy father and thy mother," 
"Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit 
adultery," " Thou shall not steal," "Thou shalt not 
bear false witness against thy neighbor," "Thou 
shalt not covet any of thy neighbors possessions," are 
each and all mandatory laws. 

A question may be asked of what utility to the 
Christian are all these ancient laws, as old things 
have passed away and Christ declared the Scriptures 
fulfilled. The Christian should know that the organic 
laws are God's platform, are fixed and immutable, 
and are the same from their inception through all 
ages to the end. When God sent His Son Jesus 
Christ upon earth as a Missionary to give to all the 
people the new dispensation, these laws were then in 
full force and operation, and formed part of His 
teachings. Reverencing these laws and the subjects 
upon which they act, from the uniform action of the 
heavenly bodies to the blade of grass in the field, a 
stupendous plan reaching from the creation to the 
establishment of the Christian religion is presented 
for the contemplation and acceptance of mankind. 

On what does this acceptance depend ? AYe answer 
that it depends upon our own knowledge, belief and 
faith. Then the question arises what portion of that 
acceptance is covered by our knowledge, what port ion 



54 God's Organic Laws. 

by belief, and what portion by faith % To arrive at a 
correct conclusion, we must understand what is 
knowledge, what is belief, and what is faith. We 
auswer that the establishment and action of material 
laws is knowledge, and belief is what may be called 
secondary knowledge which we derive from the 
inspired word of God, and faith is the acceptance of 
the whole plan of the Christian religion as recorded in 
the gospel as truth. So that faith, if it is strong enough, 
takes rank with the Christian as a material law. 

It must be remembered that material laws never 
conflict with the true Word of God, and therefore 
we are justified if we always construe that Word as 
in harmony with these laws. Some claim that the 
making of Eve out of the rib of The Adam and the 
creating of Christ in the womb of a Virgin were 
violations of His material laws. Such people do not 
understand what a material law of God is. A ma- 
terial law is the continuance of reproduction in state 
or in kind of any entity. We have no account of any 
other human being made from the rib of a man, or 
any other child being created in the womb of a virgin, 
and hence there never has been any reproduction 
of the kind in the human family, and therefore this 
making and creation were not violations of material 
laws, but were bringing into existence humanity by 
different processes, never again used. 

If the professing Christian believes in a God, and 
that He created the infinite number of subjects for 
material laws to act upon which come within His 
knowledge, why should he reject the creation in the 
Conception of Mary the Mother of Jesus, when after 
that Conception the child grew and was born in 
accordance with the material laws governing the 
birth of all children. The Conception of Mary was a 
single act of Creation by God among millions, yes 
countless creations, which all professing christians 
willingly admit to be the Act of God, while some re- 
ject all rules of logic and evidence, and deny that God 
could have done this one act, and for so slight a con- 
cession endanger their happiness in the life to come. 

As the Inspired Word of God is the foundation of 



God's Organic Laws. 55 

our belief, all can see the necessity of a correct trans- 
lation from the original into the various languages 
which are made for the education of the Christian 
World. 

How little attention apparently has been given to 
this subject we have fully explained. What can we 
expect from such deviations from the true Word 
except confusion and false deductions. First let the 
foundation be made correct and deductions of truth 
will follow. 

THE CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT LAYMEN. 

The layman of any true Christian Organization 
founded upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has two 
different and distinct relations in the terrestrial 
organization to which he may belong. The one may 
be, and often is, before baptism and entering Christ's 
Church, and the other is after entering Christ's 
Church by taking the vows of baptism. In the first 
condition he is bound to obey the laws of the land 
and the specific laws of the organization to which he 
belongs, which is a corporation, and its by-laws and 
discipline are enforced by the same means in a gene- 
ral way, as the laws of the land. On being baptized 
and on entering Christ's Church through a Christian 
Organization by making the baptismal vows, the 
member accepts the offer of God and Jesus Christ to 
reward him or her in the future life with happiness, 
if they thereafter live a life in conformity with the 
laws and requirements of the Gospel, or punishment 
for non-compliance. 

There is no terrestrial law that can reward or punish 
a member of Christ's Church for compliance or non- 
compliance with the laws of. the Gospel, but he or 
she can be rewarded or punished for compliance or 
non-compliance with the laws of a Christian Corpo- 
ration. It is therefore idle to say that a terrestrial 
Christian Organization is, or can be, Christ's Church, 
for the one can exist without the other which is 
dependent upon discipline of the Christian organiza- 
tion. So too by by-laws and other regulations a 



56 Catholic and Protestant Laymen. 

Christian Organization can be incorporated to receive 
and include only members of Christ's Church, and 
not to admit any others within their doors; but this 
would not be Christian, as these organizations are for 
the double purpose of teaching the gospel to make 
converts to faith, and furnish a place for the mem- 
bers of Christ's Church in which worship and other 
requirements of the gospel can be performed. 

From this it will be seen that a terrestrial organi- 
zation with multitude of places for teaching and 
worship, w 7 hich are usually called a Church, is not 
the same Church as Christ's Church, one being 
governed by terrestrial laws, while the other is 
governed by the law T s of God. Every layman who is 
deeply interested in his religion should not fail to 
acquaint himself with the gospel. It contains less 
reading than most novels, and when one is acquainted 
with the laws of God, material and immaterial, the 
reading and understanding of the truths of the Gos- 
pel are as simple and plain as any other reading. 

The Christian religion is conduct spiritual or other- 
wise, guided by the laws of God and following the 
example and teaching of Jesus Christ. These are all 
contained in the Gospel. These teachings and ex- 
amples are all consistent and governed by the organic 
laws of God, so that it is easy to determine what are 
the foundation principles of the Christian religion. 
From want of Gospel knowledge by the layman, 
Christianity is generally regarded as a huge, mysteri- 
ous cloud, which cannot be penetrated by human 
knowledge. Scraps of light are presented here and 
there, and duties defined here and there, but the 
mysterious cloud in its wholeness still remains to 
many. 

There is some trouble and some uncertainty in read- 
ing the Gospel in the present day, as given to us by 
the Apostles in the various languages into which the 
original has been translated. But while there may 
be errors of translatipn, and errors of interpretation, 
we believe the essential points of the Gospel still 
survive; and all sincere and devoted christians should 
accept it as such. Christ said: 



Catholic and Protestant Laymen, 57 

John iii. 5. Verily, Verily I say unto thee, except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot 
enter into the Kingdom of God. 

This is the alpha and omega of the foundation of 
the Christian religion, and contains all of faith or of 
conduct required by God or Christ. First as to Faith. 
On the faith of Peter that Christ was the Son of the 
living God, Christ said he would build His Church 
on this rock, and the gates- of Hell should not prevail 
against it. This is the foundation of the Church of 
Christ, instituted for the benefit of those who accept 
the faith and are baptized into it. The baptismal 
vow completes the faith in the truths of the gospel 
and closes by its acceptance the contract between 
man and God, that he will thereafter comply by his 
conduct with its requirements. 

This is all as we understand it of the Christian 
religion. There is no directions who, where, or when 
baptism shall be performed, so that it is done in the 
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 
Can there be anything simpler and easier of under- 
standing, done by God or man? 

Every Christian heart should overflow with grati- 
tude to God for His promises so easily grasped and 
complied with. There can be no mistaking the 
simple and compact Words of Christ, reinforced by 
other passages of the Gospel. 

The next question in order is whether these repre- 
sentations of Christ's teachings, that the Apostles 
did perform their required duties with fidelity and 
accuracy in this respect? If the answer be in the 
negative, those must abandon the Christian religion. 
If on the other hand they admit that the eleven 
Apostles did give us a true record of Christ's gospel in 
simple, plain and understandable words, in the lan- 
guage in which they recorded them, we have the reli- 
able Word of God, and an enduring Christian religion. 

Did Jesus Christ give us by His Apostles a record 
that could be understood by the nations of the earth 
according to His mandatory law of teaching, or did 
he give instructions to these apostles to mnke a record 
that could not be understood except by the inter pre- 



58 Catholic and Protestant Laymen. 

tation of somebody who would assume to make the 
gospel what it should be according to their conclu- 
sions of what was really the intention of Christ and 
His apost]es ? 

Interpretation of Divine laws is a monstrous as- 
sumption and has been the direct cause of most of 
the dissensions, quarrelings and disputes between 
Christian Denominations. Civil laws, sometimes the 
imperfections of humanity, require higher wisdom 
for interpretation, but these are all the workings of 
weak humanity. Not so with Divine laws; they are 
made by perfect wisdom, where the mind of man 
cannot reach, follow, or fathom. 

We therefore say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is 
the offspring of Divine wisdom. If there be some 
weak minds that cannot understand it without substi- 
tuting human for Divine wisdom, those would do 
well to follow such portions as they can understand, 
for there are enough of those for all practical pur- 
poses of salvation. 

Now let us examine the organic laws of God, the 
mandatory laws of Jesus Christ as additions to the 
organic laws, and see if we find anything that cannot 
be understood by the simplest mind when they are 
taught orally or by reading. We mean by under- 
standing to accept them as truth. Then, do christians 
accept as truth that there is a God, that Jesus Christ 
was the Son of God created in the womb of the Virgin 
Mary to be human form with Divine mind. That the 
God Head is composed of these two and is guided by 
the common mind of both, usually called the Holy 
Ghost; that the material or Natural Laws of God in 
operation at the time of establishing the christian 
religion are in unchanged operation now and are 
binding upon christians; that God requires of man 
recognition and obedience to all His laws, material 
and spiritual; that He will reward men for obedience 
of them, and punish them for disobedience; to accept 
as the laws of God. the Ten Commandments given to 
Moses, and which Christ made part of His srospel; to 
accept as mandatory laws the XI. and XII. Com- 
mandments of Jesus Christ, and the other mandatory 



Catholic and Protestant Laymen. 59 

laws of prayer, faith, baptism and the Lord's Supper; 
and to the apostles the mandatory law of teaching 
His Gospel to all nations? 

We have been unable to discover in all Christ's 
Gospel teachings, any new principles of morals or 
duty, which has not its root in some one of the above 
laws, except the mandatory law to His apostles to 
teach His Gospel to all nations. We now ask the 
pertinent question: Is there any one of the above laws 
of God or of Jesus Christ, which are requirements of 
Christian duty, that cannot be understood and accept- 
ed as truth ? Then where is the necessity or excuse 
for interpretation % Without it be, to bend the Gospel 
to the support of some Theology, an idea of a man ? 

All should accept the writings of the good men 
who wrote of matters supporting the principles of 
the Gospel, but should reject any doctrines, if there 
be any, that are antagonistic to God's laws whether 
material or spiritual. 

Miracles performed by authority of God are limited 
acts for the time being. 

THE APOSTOLIC ERA. 

Jesus Christ laid down in His personal teachings 
the entire foundation of the Christian religion with 
every law governing it. The first great point then 
was to adopt a means of circulating these principles 
to the knowledge of the world. Twelve of His ad- 
herents, or disciples were selected as apostles, each to 
represent Him to deliver His Gospel to the nations of 
the earth. Each w T as to have the same Divine powers 
to perform miracles as He used, so that the people 
would more readily believe. Each of the eleven 
apostles was for the purpose of teaching the gospel, 
to be (for this purpose) a Christ for life. 

Accordingly the day of pentecost was appointed as 
the time to commence these apostolic teachings, and 
throw open the doors of Christ's Church to the world. 
Peter's first effort was rewarded by the conversion of 
three thousand souls to the faith, that " Jesus Christ 
was the Son of the living God" and of the truths of 



60 Apostolic Era. 

His Gospel, and were baptized into Christ's Church. 
The question here arises, were these converts bap- 
tized into Christ's Church which He founded upon 
the faith that He was the Son of the living God, and 
on the truths and requirements of the vows of bap- 
tism to lead a life according to its requirements, or 
were they baptized into the Roman Catholic Organi- 
zation, of which Peter was the head, and vowed on 
baptism to obey its by-laws and discipline in addition 
to those required by Christ's Church ? 

To belong to the Catholic, or any other Christian 
Denomination, a member of that organization must 
bind himself to obey the discipline of the organiza- 
tion, and if he does not, he can be suspended or dis- 
missed, or otherwise dealt with. 

The position of a member of Christ's Church is 
very different. Once a member, always a member, 
and no human power can displace him, or interfere 
with him. If he is a member of Christ's Church, and 
also a member of a Christian organization, he can be 
dealt with by it for any violation of baptismal vows, 
or violation of any discipline of the organization. 
His baptismal Vows are with God, to accept His 
promises of reward for good conduct, or to be pun- 
ished for sin for deeds done in the body. 

This is the contract between the members of 
Christ's Church and God, and is the Magna Charta 
of the Christian, and God will hold him responsible 
for any violation of that contract. The Gospel does 
not confine the making of this Contract to any par- 
ticular Christian Organization, to any particular men, 
or to any particular person, or any particular position, 
nor does it specify the drops of water to be used in 
baptism, so that the using of a drop or more, or an 
ocean, complies with the requirements of the Gospel. 

If every Organization had confined itself to the 
teachings of the eleven apostles in the Apostolic Era, 
there would be no necessity to-day to make an appeal 
for Christian unity, as there would be in that event, 
unity upon the Gospel as taught by Christ, of one 
Lord, one Faith and one Baptism. There are Chris- 
tian Denominations so-called which do not accept 



Apostolic Era. 61 

all of God's Organic laws, and the entire of Christ's 
Gospel, and such cannot be called Christian; but there 
are very many that do, and they are Christian, and if 
they had followed the teachings of the Apostolic 
Era, without any further disciplines in their organi- 
zations, peace and Christian love would have distin- 
guished them to-day from the quarreling, bickering 
sects which now disturb the Christian World. 

Nineteen-twentieths of all the differences between 
Christian Denominations arise out of Discipline and 
not from the Gospel. Some Denominations are so 
hampered by cumbersome discipline, that the prin- 
ciples and requirements of the Gospel are lost sight 
of, and the discipline has sometimes become their 
religion, instead of the Gospel. There is altogether 
too much machinery in discipline, and without the 
layman is a scholar in the gospel, it is difficult for 
him to distinguish between discipline and gospel. 

This muddles up Christianity to such an extent, 
that it is not surprising that complications that now 
exist have good grounds for their existence. 

Creeds as such, are not found in the Gospel, but 
are compilations from ft of its salient points. The 
Apostles' Creed as it is called, was the first one 
adopted by the Roman Catholic Organization. The 
Gospel reader is surprised not to find in it the key- 
stone of the Christian Religion, while that is set forth 
prominently in the Gospel, namely, faith and baptism 
as requirements to enter upon a Christian life, and 
further, that the name given by Christ to His Church 
(Christ's Church) is entirely ignored by name in that 
Creed, and another name not found in the Gospel 
(Holy Catholic Church) used in its stead. This latter 
is an indefinite name while Christ's Church is a defi- 
nite one, which all can understand that read the Gospel. 

It is probable that this may have been the reason 
why the same Catholic Organization found it expedi- 
ent to make another Creed called the Nicene Creed, 
in which the name Holy Catholic Church was dropped, 
and the name One Catholic Apostolic Church was 
used instead. Still no reference was made in this 
Creed to Christ's Church, or to faith and baptism as 



62 Apostolic Era. 

a means of enjoying its blessing. Time and discussion 
no doubt suggested the fact that the name in the 
Mcene Creed was too great a departure from the Apos- 
tles' Creed by having dropped the word Holy, so the 
Pope approved of a later Creed where the name One 
Holy Catholic Apostolic Church was adopted. Still no 
reference was made in this Creed to Christ's Church, 
or to faith and baptism the Key-Stone of Christianity. 

It is upon this Creed that the Catholic Organiza- 
tion found their claim of being the only Christ's 
Church, from which it will be seen that the claim is 
based upon the discipline of their organization, and 
not upon the gospel. We make no comments upon 
these facts, leaving every one to draw his own con- 
clusion from them, so that every layman in any Chris- 
tian Denomination can see that he can belong to any 
one of them, and receive the benefits promised, with- 
out being compelled to belong to this Catholic Organi- 
zation which claims to be the exclusive and only 
Christ's Church. We conclude that it will be a long 
time before Christian unity will be accomplished on 
this basis, if ever. 

The Gospel teachings of the Catholic Organizations, 
as far as we are acquainted with them, are upon the 
foundation principles of the Christian religion, and 
it has done vast good in the past in making converts 
to the true faith and baptizing millions into Christ's 
Church, and its vast Organization promises equally 
great and 2:ood work for the future, but its discip- 
line, teachings that the Pope, the Cardinals, Arch- 
bishops, Bishops and Priests are Vicegerents of Christ 
with permissive powers to heal the sick, cast out devils, 
raise the dead, and forgive sins, powers given byClnist 
onlv to His twelve Apostles, and that it is the only 
Christ's Church, are claims that excite the worst pas- 
sions of half the Christian world that is not Catholic. 

Tf we are ri^rhtlv informed, the Pope approves of 
every Article of Faith and every point of discipline, 
and the laity accept them as the requirements of 
their religion. Ts it then surprising that the Catholics 
are all bound together in one solid phalanx against 
all other differing opinions. From this cause they 



Apostolic Era. 63 

are a devoted and sincere people, complying with all 
the requirements of faith and discipline. The re- 
quirements of discipline are so numerous and exten- 
sive, that the subject of these religious duties is kept 
constantly in their minds. The teachings begin in the 
cradle, all catholic mothers being engaged in this oc- 
cupation until the children are old enough to attend 
the higher teachings in the houses of the organization. 

This is but a fraction of their teachings; the numer- 
ous orders, societies, priests and nuns, almost beyond 
computation complete an army of devoted christian 
teachers. Hence it is not surprising that through 
this rigid attention to the whole subject, they have 
accepted as faith the discipline of the apostolic suc- 
cession with Divine permissive powers, and the mis- 
nomer of Christ's Church for the Roman Catholic 
Organization. There may be found some excuse for 
this anomalous condition. The Catholic laity as a 
rule do not study the gospel much from the record of 
it given to us in the New Testament, but accept all 
of their teachings without a thought of reservation. 

When the Apostolic Era was ended in the establish- 
ment of the principles of the Christian religion it was 
A free for all, because Christ's Church was to be 
and is universal, and it was natural that the Catholic 
Organization should follow the teachings of the gos- 
pel, as the apostles had done, and strive to make 
their converts believe that this was the only true 
Christ's Church, without very close investigation. 
No doubt their zeal overcame their absolute know- 
ledge of the Gospel, and they fell into a rut that all 
subsequent catholics have followed. 

If they had investigated closely, they would have 
found that the original number of Christ's Apostles 
with Divine powers was twelve* and after Judas 
killed himself, there were eleven. Now it is claimed 
that there were twelve, Matthias having been chosen 
by the Eleven as the Twelfth to fill the place of Judas, 
In the first place, there is nothing in Christ's Gospel 
that gave the living apostles power to fill vacancies. 
This is simple assumption. There were two candi- 



64 Apostolic Era, 

dates for the place of Judas, Matthias and Barsabas; 
the lot fell upon Matthias and he was selected. 

There not being a word in the Gospel that Christ 
made any provision for giving any one the Divine 
permissive powers that He gave His twelve apostles, 
nor allowing them to do so, these powers ceased at 
the death of each apostle. 

Will any one pretend to say that Christ's manda- 
tory law to the twelve apostlesto teach the Gospel to all 
nations applied to any persons, except those named ? 

It was a specific command, with a specific object, 
and that object was that His gospel should be made 
known to all nations. The acceptance of His gospel 
after the Apostolic Era, and the teachings that would 
and did naturally result, is quite a different mode 
from the Apostolic teaching. 

Suppose the Apostolic teachings had convinced no 
one in the nations of the earth, did Christ in His 
gospel make any conditions or arrangements for such 
a contingency ? By no means; all was centered upon 
the Apostolic teachings of the eleven, and no one can 
gainsay that proposition. Still Christ spoke many 
times of the acceptance by the world of His Gospel, 
and that the gates of Hell could not prevail against 
His Church, and the course of events goes to prove 
His words as true, as all others of His declarations. 

Succession of good teachers by the laying on of 
hands is a valuable discipline, as it holds responsible 
the ordainer to select the fittest for the work. The 
eleven apostles established this discipline as outside 
the gospel, as Christ never ordained any of His 
Apostles by any such form, but simply by selection, 
and the form cannot be found in His Gospel. In like 
manner the Apostolic succession with Divine powers 
forms no part of Christ's Gospel. 

Christ's Church was established by Him and He 
was and is the only true Head. Peter was the first 
head of the Catholic Organization, and was the first 
one occupying the position of Pope, and that Organi- 
zation has continued to have a Pope ever since, and 
to this, in a great measure, can be referred the con- 
tinuance and great success of that Organization. 



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